Emperor Xander
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: Warhammer 40k Cross: Xander dresses as the God-Emperor of mankind for Halloween...
1. Default Chapter

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**I do not own, nor do I cliam ownership of characters/concepts from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Gamesworkshops Warhammer 40,000**

** Please read and review**

Note that due to the sheer 'Deus Ex Machina' represented by the God-Emperor of Mankind, that I will NOT be doing a sequal... sorry if you like this and want one.

xxxxxx

Xander snorted, glancing contemptuously at the red dress Buffy and Willow were ohh and ahhing over. It was nice to be sure, but if they wanted to impress Angel that wasn't the way. Sure, he didn't like deadboy but he respected him to a point and had at least bothered to listen to every detail on those few occasions Angel had discussed his past. He knew Angel had hated the vapid airheads' of that period and whilst he might really like the thought of Buffy wearing that, he had little doubt it would be enough to make him renounce spandex, it would do Buffy a disservice to allow her to wear a costume her knew her target would not like.

"Buffy," Xander started, his eyes rolling as he interrupted his friends, "remember the last time Angel had to talk about his past?"

He ignored the puzzled and somewhat startled looks from his friends, just waited for their nods.

"What did he say about the ladies of that he nodded at the dress period?"

"Well," Willow replied, "that they were useless vapid..." the penny dropped, "ohh"

"Not such a good idea?" Buffy asked.

"Not such a good idea" Willow confirmed.

"Thanks Xander"

Xander shook himself back to the present, Buffy kissed me, Buffy kissed me Okay, it was a quick thank you peck on the check but Buffy Kissed Me!

"So..." Buffy's amused tone snapped him back to the present with a start, "Any suggestions since you just saved me from a boyfriend related disaster"

Xander winced at the boyfriend comment, but it was Buffy asking so he considered it seriously, "well, whatever happens, you have to dress up as somebody strong willed since you wish to impress deadboy and he doesn't like airheads... but" Xander paused, then looked Buffy straight in the eyes, "we are a team, and I think we should chose costumes that reflect that"

He grimaced sardonically, "but it will have to be a five dollar costume for me, I'm a little low on funds"

Xander caught Willow and Buffy exchanging a significant look and began to worry, "oh don't worry Xander, I'm sure we can find something suitable..."

xxxxx

Xander smiled at Joyce as he walked into the Summer's house, "Miss Summers, always a pleasure to see such a vision of beauty and youth"

She snorted, amused by the flirting, "you're just after some homemade cookies off the batch I made earlier"

Xanders smiled, "homemade cookies? New batch? Miss Summer, how many would you give me for my soul? It has to be worth five cookies at...Gagh!"

Smirking, Joyce glanced up the stairs at her daughter, "You owe me five bucks lady, his mind has well and truly shut down"

Buffy stepped down the stairs, followed by Willow, the steps creaking under the heavy weight of their costumes, "I'll give it you next time I get my allowance... you sure you're okay with me wearing this?"

"Well, I don't like it. I think you should have chosen something a little less gothic but its Halloween and at least you're wearing more then I did one year"

"Really? How much did you wear? Do tell?" Buffy practically bounced on her feet at the prospect of some mother related gossip, a difficult feat in such heavy plastic faux-armour but one her slayer strength made look deceptively easy.

Joyce wasn't buying into it though, "I think you've broken Xander enough, besides, don't you have a school to get to? Kids to lead around"

"Don't want to be late" Willow pointed out.

"Right..." Buffy glanced at Xander, who was finally getting his mind back together, "Xander?"

"Have me I mean, yes?"

She grinned wickedly, "heel!"

Xander's mind was already in a dirty place and the images that one word brought up was enough to send him well and truly over the edge.

"Aw Buffy, you broke him again"

xxxx

Collecting their groups of children was relatively easy, given that for once Snyder gave them no trouble at all. They suspected it had something to do with their costumes and the swords and other weapons with came with them. It was perhaps a good thing for their sanity that they didn't know that Snyder's wet dreams were dressed a lot like Willow and Buffy were.

Giles unfortunately caught the expression on Snyder's face as the girls walked away and had to go have a swift drink... followed by a swift 'intimidate the headmaster' session.

Meanwhile, elsewhere Ethan Rayne was casting a spell, summoning forth Janus to wreck chaos on the town.

xxxx

He felt strange... almost human. He hadn't felt that way in a long time, not since the near mortal blow had confined him to his throne. Strange.

Stranger still, he appeared to be once more bound to a corporeal form and he was inside his ancient Terminator armour.

"What kind of magic is this? How did I not sense it happening?" the immortal Emperor of mankind asked, more then a little surprised and annoyed as he realised that for the first time in near twenty millennia, he was truly alive.

He couldn't be, he was humanities guardian, he needed to walk the path of the warp, of the immaterium to guide his mighty servants as they defended humanity from the alien, the demon and the pysker.

How had he been reduced to solid form once more? Not even the chaos powers had strength enough to manage that!

A scrabbling hit his augmented hearing and he glanced down, the gold and precious metals covering his armour glinting in the light from the street lights, the whining of the servos in his massive master-crafted terminator armour sounding faintly through the street, being drown out by creams and the wailing of sirens.

'Demon', was his first thought as he saw the form scratching at his armour, trying to break through. 'Child' was his second as his inner eye told him all was not as it seemed.

Converted by chaos magic yet it was not the magic of Tzeentch, the Changer of ways, the chaos power most likely to be involved in an act such as this. In fact, the mark was not of any of the chaos powers, major or minor that he knew, and after so many years walking the stars and warp in his astral form, he knew almost all of the powers. But the magic... he could see a tie in it, a link to some distant object.

Maybe... if that object was destroyed, he might be able to change the being back to the innocent he was meant to be, and preservation of the innocent was a laudable goal, there were so few of them in the universe of the 41st millennia.

He kicked the monster away, the force of the servos and hydraulics in his armoured legs throwing the monster a full five hundred feet before it rolled to a stop, unconscious and bleeding, but the Emperor wasn't paying attention, his mind was already elsewhere.

Am I too a child changed by these magic's? Is there another soul whom this body truly belongs too?

He glanced within, and found Alexander Lavelle Harris.

xxxx

"In the name of the Emperor, won't you just _die?" _ Stern shouted, her bolter slamming against her shoulder as round after round burst from the barrel, tearing through the miniature demons that had suddenly developed an urge to call home to their mummies...

"Damn nurglings!" she muttered, slamming another clip home as the demons raced out of range, "always so damn small, always to damn nimble to hit cleanly"

She glanced around, not recognising any of the buildings or the construction methods but that was not a surprise, the worlds of the Empire were many and varied and most seemed to have their own unique way of doing things. No, what she found surprising was no aquilas or alien totems anywhere, either defaced or in use. That meant... well, she wasn't sure what it meant. The worlds of the Empire displayed the aquila, the double headed eagle everywhere and whilst the presence of demons suggested a chaos controlled world, there were no signs of which chaos power controlled the region.

Worse still, she had no idea how she had arrived here or where the rest of her Battlesisters were.

Quickly mouthing the litany of activation, she turned her suit comm on, "Seraphim Stern reporting"

She waited a beat, then smiled as a voice broke from the radio, "Battlesister Thorn, is the Prioress with you?"

Stern frowned, her bolter spitting fire at a demon that was stupid enough to get to close, "negative... I have no contact with the convent or any other of our Battlesisters"

"Emperor preserve us, the area is swarming with Demons and we are alone"

"We must do our duty" Stern replied, piously, "if the Emperor demands we die this day, then so be it"

"Ahem"

"That... won't be necessary. I'm uploading a navigation marker to your suits; make best speed to my location immediately"

Stern frowned, "This is a restricted channel, identify yourself immediately or by the Emperors name I will kill you myself"

A tired chuckle was the response to her words, then a pause, "Battlebrother... Harris, Grey Knights"

Stern slammed up straight, a Grey Knight, here?

She hesitated, but knew her duty. She would have to approach cautiously just in case he was not what he claimed to be, but if he was then she was his to Command. Grey Knights were an Elite Chapter even for the Space Marines, dedicated demon hunters and it was rumoured that the entire chapter was psychic.

"In his name, I am coming"

She flicked the transmitter off, nodding as she heard Thorn respond, and then began running towards the marker now displayed on her helmet.

xxxx

"You lied about who you were" she said simply, amazed that she could do even that much. What she saw was impossible, yet her heart and mind were both shouting at her that the man she saw in front of her was truly her Lord, the Emperor.

"If I had told you whom I truly was, would you have believed me?"

"No" Stern replied, glancing bemused at the still kneeling Thorn, "but then, I believe you have guided me before"

"I have guided you many times Seraphim; only rarely did I feel you needed the assurance of knowing I was there however"

He sighed, "Thorn, would you ever disobey an order from your Emperor?"

"No, my Lord, I would rather Die!"

"As you should, but right now I need you on overwatch"

Thorn slammed up, the Servo's in her Power Armour whining for a moment as she went in the blink of an eye from kneeling, to overwatch, gun hold level as she began searching for any threats to her God.

The Emperor resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but with difficulty, "I also need you both to _listen" _

"We are not meant to be here, these are not our bodies, we have merely been forced into these shells by a chaos mage"

"My Lord, we are going to kill this mage are we not?" Thorn asked.

"Of course, but first, I have a question for the two of you about a volunteer only mission"

"My Lord, you do not have to ask" Stern replied.

"Yes, I was almost afraid that would be your reply" the Emperor glanced up, "but for now... the young lady being chased by those demons has not been tainted, save her"

xxxx

A volley of bolter fire filled the air, and with a not-so muffled shriek Cordelia dived for cover, her mind frantically trying to cope with the fact that not only did Buffy and Willow apparently have guns and were using them, but that Dweeb boy did too.. and _that _ scared her. If there was one person who should never be handed a gun, it was Xander. And where did that armour come from anyway?

"Miss, you _will _ come with us" Cordelia glanced up at Willow, more then a little apprehensive. It was Willows body, Willows voice, but the tone, the expectation of being obeyed, the assurance and strength of will behind it was not Willow.

"Thorn, if you have to, threaten her" Buffy said, and Cordelia was suddenly afraid, that didn't sound like Buffy at all, that voice sounded like a soldier, "but we must leave, we have a mission to accomplish"

A small geyser of dirt sprang up as Willow, no Thorn fired a single round into the ground mere inches in front of her, "get up and stay with us. If you do not, we will abandon you to the hosts of chaos"

Cordelia shivered, and swiftly got up.

xxxx

Ethan groaned, shifting painful as he tried to rise to his feet, his body aching and pained. Something had gone wrong with the spell, something had cause far far more energy to be expended then he had expected and damn did it hurt. Not that the energy had come from him of course, that was the point of using Janus, he could and would provide the needed energy but he was the caster. That meant that some of the energy would pass through him, a mere small fraction compared to what would pass through the bust.

But that fraction had proven enough to flatten him, and it shouldn't have. Something had pulled more energy through the bust, forcing more energy to pass through him then he had prepared for.

That meant just one thing, and it could be summoned up in one word, trouble.

Unfortunately for Ethan, trouble was standing outside the door, swapping their Bolters for close combat weapons.

xxxx

Xander came to slowly, his mind screaming and pained as he tried to force the memories of being the Emperor, of all that the Emperor had known and done, of the Emperor's betrayal and near death at the hands of his most trusted warlord to a distant corner of his mind.

He felt a shift within his mind, and his eyes snapped open, terrified as a voice within him said, "Don't worry my child, I am with you"

In front of him stood a massive suit of armour, empty with a helmet set to one side. It was painted white and embossed with gold and precious metals and blazed across the front was the Imperial Aquila, the two headed eagle standard of the Empire of mankind.

And unlike the suit he had bought, it was all so obviously real.

A distant part of Xander's mind wondered oh so briefly as Xander fell back into unconsciousness if Buffy and Willow were taking it any better.


	2. Chapter 2

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**

* * *

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you can pat yourselves on the back, this has been upgraded from one-shot to full story because of the sheer volume of reviews i have recieved from the various groups/archives to which this has been posted.

* * *

maleficus-lupus: **unfortunately, i have no idea what Paladin Anderson is, but as far as Alucard goes... the day i write a cross with any anime is the day Satan orders anti-freeze. Sorry, but that is the way it is.  
**rankukonalpha1: **more is here, as per request...  
**dnic5: **as per request...  
**sean: **no sequal, but more chapters, that close enough:D  
**covered in blood'n gore: **heh, i will be sticking very much to a Heroic Xander, therefore taking control of the world is out, as is taking out the powers that be, censored they may be, they ARE on the side of the light

* * *

**Two**

You wake up one morning and find out you're a God. Not 'God', but a God, what do you do?

Xander Harris had never seriously considered the question before but he supposed now he had no choice, he was, for all intents and purposes, a higher being

On the plus side, one of the local big bads had already revealed themselves by the simple process of genuflecting in front him and asking for assistance with an ascension, on the downside, he now had to clean Mayor out of his carpet and he had this real feeling that he had somehow missed out on an opportunity, there was this image of C4 and the school he just couldn't get out of his head...

Still, he now knew where _every _ demon and vampire in town, he could feel them, their evil, their putridness and their fear. Yes, their fear, for just as he could sense them, they could sense the purity and goodness coming from him all the way across town and he somehow _knew _ that they could sense him.

It wasn't just the aura and the knowledge, the extra sense he now seemed to have that had these questions spinning in his mind, nor was it the armour and weapons that now seemed to be his. It was... well, himself he supposed.

He knew that he since he had been helping Buffy he had gotten far stronger and fitter, but now, well he didn't have the muscles or body of the God Emperor of Mankind but he could feel the discipline and training that allowed the GEoM to maintain those in the back of his mind and he knew that if he wanted to, he could quickly become fit enough to beat a pre-possession Buffy.

Post-possession Buffy would take a _lot _ longer, frankly he didn't know which was scaring the Demons the most, himself in his GEoM guise, or Buffy, who was still the Slayer but now seemed to have the discipline and knowledge of a veteran fighter in the back of her mind, at her beck and call.

And, Xander had to admit, Buffy was now a far deadlier warrior. She had made her peace with the spirit of the Battlesister Stern, and together those two souls had combined, Buffy's drive and passion to live yet with that touch of darkness and Sterns iron discipline and knowledge of combat.

Dare he say it, but Buffy actually seemed to be a better person now?

Willow was the scary one though, becoming quite the little magus, the possession from the battlesister seemed to have added an iron discipline she needed if she was to control her magics and not be controlled by them. It also put a control on her more unhealthy tendencies to control and dominate, however subtle she might have been with that in the past, so much so Xander didn't honestly think she realized she was doing it half the time, he could now recognise the signs buried in her past actions and behaviours.

Still, his mind was taking him off topic. Why? Because he truly didn't want to think about this, he knew intellectually he must but it scared him, the potential ramifications of what he now was.

But he had too, and the voice in the back of his mind, the lingering spirit of the true GEoM wasn't helping. He just said that he had to figure it out for himself, true maybe but it sucked.

It didn't help that God, who looked strangely like Alanis Moresette had seen fit to visit him (before he was even dressed!) and start laying down some ground rules Well, the Snape-alike laid down the rules; she just looked severely at him. Of course, he now also had a severely burnt section of carpet to deal with, courtesy of the mouth pieces dramatic entrance.

Now, who was he truly?

Was he Xander? Was he the GEoM?

Where did he belong?

What was his purpose?

Xander did not sleep well that night.

* * *

The next morning brought news that frankly, left Xander pretty conflicted. The demons were staging an evacuation; the vampires in particular were leaving en-masse, all because they were suddenly so afraid of a particular trio of scoobies. 

On the obvious plus side, less demons and monsters on the hellmouth, downside one, that meant they were elsewhere, places that might not be protected. Downside two, they were afraid of him, demons, vampires were all afraid of him, and what did that truly mean for him? Downside Three, those that were staying were the powerful ones, master vampires, higher level demons, and the Watchers Council, in a rare move had actually phoned to warn them that there now seemed to be a mass movement of some of the worst monsters in the world _to _ the hellmouth.

Xander had to admit, the only one of them who was truly ready for that was Buffy. Willow was learning fast and gaining in power and more importantly discipline but she didn't yet have the stamina, for want of a better term, to last a battle with higher level demons, and him, he didn't even know or understand his place, how could he help?

Worse, he know felt sorry for the other Scoobies, Giles and Cordelia. Whilst Giles was still very much their chief researcher and scholar, both were extremely vulnerable to the new threats headed their way, far more so then they had been in the past. Hell, it was rumoured that a Hellgod was headed their way, looking for a little distraction from her search for some key'.

And they were disorganised, too many changes had happened in too short a time, Giles was starting to hit the bottle, feeling worthless and pointless in the face of the sheer power now wielded by his children, Buffy should be the leader, should hold the reins but somehow she couldn't, she kept trying to look elsewhere for guidance, as if she felt deep in her soul that somebody else should be leading, as did Willow.

And he knew they expected him to lead, they had been influenced by their costumes after all, and their costumes expected his holiness, the God Emperor of Mankind to lead, and that, for want of a better candidate was him.

He couldn't lead, he wasn't a leader!

But with a sigh, he had to acknowledge that part, deep within the very foundations of his soul, that told him he could lead, and he could lead strongly. He feared that part of him, that part meant change and he had seen so much of it recently that a little stability would be welcomed, but he knew it was not to be.

Yet... for the moment, the higher level types were arriving in ones and twos and being killed swiftly but Xander knew that wouldn't last. The higher level the demons they killed, the higher the level they gained the attention off, the more they gained the attention off. Soon, they would attract the head of a demon host and then an army would swarm down onto the mouth of hell and whilst they might cause massive casualties, Xander knew they were no army, they couldn't hold for long.

The answer, his mind told him, was simple. If they didn't have an army, then they would have to find one. But how?

Okay, first find those had direct contact with the dark and knew how to fight, they would form the solid core of the army. Soldiers would be good, trained warriors of one sort or another, and then grow out from there. So, how do you find trained solider who had had contact with the dark and were willing to fight it? It wasn't as if they would advertise

Xander froze, but they _would, _if you knew how to look... he grinned, or how to place the advert.

It never occurred to him that he was actually thinking and acting like a leader at that moment and the voice within his mind wasn't going to point that out to him... yet.

* * *

"Oh dear lord" the words slipped, almost unaccustomed out of Giles mouth and he rubbed self-consciously at his beard, the remnants of the three day bender he had slipped into after the events of Halloween. A bender not unlike those he had enjoyed in his youth, but at least in his Ripper days, he could remember what the ingredients for that hangover-killing potion were. Right now, he could _really _ do with it. 

 "Willow"  he asked, calmly, quietly and hoping Willow , who was looking at him at little startled and more then a little bemused, would get the point, and keep quite when she replied, "What does this note mean?"

He waved the offending piece of paper with its message in Xanders distinctive almost dyslexic scrawl under Willows nose, and she brightened, "oh, you mean the subtle recruitment pitch Xander came up with?"

Giles looked at Willow aghast, "Glowing Eyes? Pointy Teeth? Fast, strong and Dead? If this description means anything to you, then we need You! For a new special operations unit! Xander calls _that _ subtle?"

"Yep"

"And where exactly is Xander going to place this?"

Willow smiled, and Giles resisted a groan, he knew that smile, he knew he was suddenly going to regret having asked that question.

"Oh, it's already posted. Hacked into the defence ministries of a few countries, had them email or snail mail it out Every serviceman or women doing black ops in Nato should be receiving that in the next couple of days"

Giles looked at Willow incredulously, then groaned, reaching swiftly for his glasses, "oh, bloody hell!"

* * *

"Madam, we may have a leak" 

"Where?"

"We traced this to somewhere inside Sunnydale"

"In _Sunnydale? _ The base hasn't even been completed yet and we have a leak inside _Sunnydale?" _

"It appears so madam"

"Fine, take what trained agents we have and head for Sunnydale, I want to know what the hell is going on"

"Yes sir"

"And Riley? Be discrete"

* * *

"Sir, we may have a foothold" 

"Where son?"

" Sunnydale , California sir. A hacker, who has been traced to Sunnydale, ordered the defence mainframe to send this to every Navy Seal, Delta and more. O'Neill is on his way in; he says he has already received a copy"

"Assemble SG-1 for a briefing at 0600, and arrange transport for Sunnydale California "

"Yes sir"

* * *

"I'm afraid the mission to Paris has been scrapped, this was sent to everyone in the SAS, SBS and a few others by a hacker in Sunnydale California , we want to know why" 

"Yes, a copy arrived in my inbox earlier, was about to discuss it with security. Has this only affected us?"

"No, so far Germany , France and Italy have to began to ask questions"

 "America ?"

"We believe so, but that's not confirmed. Mrs Moneypenny has your tickets. And Bond do be careful, we cannot afford to replace an agent of your calibre after all"

"Of course not" James Bond 007 smiled, knowing in his heart exactly what M really meant.

* * *

"Harry? What is it?" 

"Just a memory, a memory I would rather had remained buried"

"Hey, Harry, you hear, there's been a crazy hacker in the personnel files, sending some whacked out email out to everyone"

"You mean this email?"

"Yea, you got one too then. Want to bet the boss sends us after the clown who did this?"

"No bet"

"Yo! Call for a Doris and a Borris..."

* * *

"No shit, somebody really sent this out to those black ops types?" 

"They even got it out to everyone who was in the field"

"That had to take some serious balls"

"Balls or not, it's illegal as hell"

"Which is why you're being sent in to find them. And this time, I want no destroyed trains, no plane crashes, just bring them in please Gerard"

"Oh, I always get my man"

"I know, that's the only reason I haven't fired your arse"

* * *

"Do you really have an idea what you have done Xander?" 

Xander smiled, "just invited one or two people to a party. Do you think they'll come?"

Giles just looked at him, aghast.


	3. Chapter 3

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Three**

"Say, Harry, is it me or is the alphabet soup coming out of the woodwork around here?"

Harry snorted, "Why don't we play a game of I spy the spy?"

Gibbs chuckled, "I spy with my little eye... a spy beginning with A"

"Army Special Operations, group of three just moving into the end rooms"

"Well done Helen, your getting better at this"

Harry reached over to hug his wife, and Gibbs rolled his eyes,"hey, cut it out will you, innocent eyes are watching"

"Hey, no-one innocent here so if you want to continue so I can, you know, watch" Faisil trailed off, not liking the look he was being sent, "okay, shutting up now..."

"Hey, I got one for you Harry" Helen said, smiling as she looked out the window, "I spy with my little eye, an agent beginning with M'"

Harry glanced outside, joined quickly by Gibbs and Faisil.

"Okay, sure about the M, cos I'm not seeing any" Gibbs commented, after a minute.

"Try Marshall Gerard, standing by the government sedans" Helen smirked.

Gibbs frowned, "Harry, did your wife just beat us?"

"Yep"

Gibbs sighed, "Damn"

* * *

Willow reached down, popping some more popcorn into her mouth, ignoring the slurping sounds as Buffy finished the last of her coke off. 

"You know, I was gonna stay in and watch The Life of Brian tonight but this, this is actually funnier"

"Uh huh, so who's those guys?"

"Airforce black ops, don't know what they actually do but whatever it is, they do appear to have a hotline to the President"

Buffy glanced at Willow , a little startled, "Really? Cool"

"Following them, trying to be inconspicuous is an Army Black Ops unit that the NID is manoeuvring to seize control of, they're called the initiative and I think they're in our line of business"

Buffy grimaced, "let me guess, NID bad?"

"Very, you'll have to watch them. Those government sedans heading for the Police Station, those belong to Marshall Gerard and his team, usually go after fugitives so they're being here is a little odd but not unheard off"

"Cops?"

Willow nodded, "tenacious, pit-bull type cops, real good"

Buffy frowned, "I really don't know whether that kind of cop is a good thing or a bad thing in Sunnydale"

Willow nodded, "could go either way"

"You know... those two; I would say that they were husband and wife, except they seem to be following the army boys..." Buffy frowned, somewhat bemused, "and the Army boys are following the Air Force, ever get a Looney Tunes feeling?"

"Now those guys I don't know, but they did book rooms in the motel after the notice went out"

"Check on em"

"Sure"

"So, you find anything or me, or did I manage to slip your little net?"

"Epp!" Willow snorted, spraying popcorn as he voice spoke behind her.

Buffy glanced around, actually impressed, she hadn't heard the man who had a distinct English accent approach and she had slayer hearing.

"Names Bond, James Bond and I believe you posted a note about vampires?"

* * *

So Bond watched the boy who was speaking very carefully, he could not see anything about this boy that screamed danger to him but in his business, that was normal, the truly dangerous ones _never _ gave any obvious indication of how much of a threat they were, "You received the advert, was going to goof off your next mission to investigate but your boss sent you anyway. You say you know vampires because you've come across them several times in your work" 

"I'm a field agent with MI-5; I operate in the dark quite often, in the black even more often. In our line of work it often not a case of if you come into contact with the dark so much as when and if you are good enough to survive it"

Bond kept his eyes on the child for a little longer, as he glanced at him assessingly, before nodding, "very well, I'm Xander Harris and if you really are interested in the story behind that message, then I suggest you come back here at nightfall. You will not like what you hear so I suggest you take the rest of the afternoon to seriously consider if you want to return or not"

* * *

"Vampires? Kids gotta be kidding right" Gibbs laughed, then he caught Harry's eye, and his smile vanished, "He is kidding, right?" 

Gibbs swallowed, suddenly uncertain as Harry turned away, refusing to answer.

"Guys, I just pulled this Bond guys record..." Faisil stammered, pointing at the screen.

"He's how old?" Helen gasped, "Doesn't look a day over forty..."

"The Island of Dr No? Christ, I remember hearing about that on my dad's knee!" Gibbs shook his head, "guys a legend and he's talking about vampires as if they were real"

Gibbs fell silent again as Harry looked away, "well, nice one for spotting those kids Faisil"

"Yes" Harry replied, distracted, "good work"

* * *

"O'Neill" 

"What's up Teal'c?"

Teal'c looked uncomfortably at Colonel Jack O'Neill, a look no-one that didn't know the tall Jaffa well would be able to recognise, "I'm afraid junior' is becoming most discomforted"

"Discomforted?" O'Neill raised an eyebrow, surprised, "how?"

2It began as soon as we entered this town; something about this town is setting junior on edge"

"Do you have any idea what Teal'c?"

"I do not, Daniel"

O'Neill bounced on his feet, almost giddy, "a description that could be of the Goa'uld coming from a town that is somehow making junior' discomforted"

"Wait" Daniel looked up at Jack, "you think there's some kind of weapon against the Goa'uld here and that whoever sent that message knows about it?"

"It's a possibility" Jack said.

Carter glanced at him doubtfully, "Its possible I suppose... say, anyone else notice how many cemeteries there are in this town?"

* * *

Riley shook his head, a little mystified, "No-one is this town notices this? We were in the bronze just five minutes and I spotted twelve definite HSTs... this town is swarming!"

"Explains the Cemeteries" Graham commented, "Walsh will be happy..."

"Well, I'm not" Riley said, glancing back at his companions, "I really don't think we've got enough agents for this"

"Well someone must have noticed, otherwise why was that message sent?"

Riley nodded, "something else, those HSTs in the bronze, they were on edge, jumpy..." he glanced directly at his two companions.

Forest nodded, "scared"

Graham grimaced, "something in this town has HSTs _scared?" _

Forest and Riley glanced at each other, and as one they replied, "Definitely going to need more agents..."

* * *

"Cops are dirty as hell" Gerard commented as they swept down from the police station towards their cars.

"Yep Cosmo" commented, "but why? With the clean out after the Major disappeared I would have thought they would have been too scared to be dirty. Hell, they haven't even finished trying the old Police Chief yet"

"I don't know..." Cooper commented, "They certainly seemed scared"

"Of us" Gerard replied, his hand on the vehicles ignition.

"Yes and no..." Cooper responded, "It almost as if they lived with fear. I've seen it before in stations inside gang neighbourhoods but there's no gang problem here despite the gangs on PCP' comments on their reports"

"That's a code, gotta be" Cosmo said.

"Yes, but what for?" Gerard glanced back at the station once, and then drove the car swiftly away.

* * *

Bond blinked, perturbed.

Then blinked again.

"You're now the _what?" _

Xander grinned, wryly, "The God Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40k, well kind of. I seem to have the equipment, a lot of the memories and I can certainly sense demons miles off, bit I missed out on the body somewhere working on my exercises to build myself up more but that takes time. As far as the psychic abilities go, I know I have some of them, it's just a case of tracking which ones survived and which ones didn't then learning to use them. I'm not all powerful and frankly I wouldn't want to be, but the demons are starting to think I am and that means they either consider me a threat... or a challenge."

"The demons that are arriving in town are getting more and more powerful everyday and already, we are starting to see small groups, teams I suppose of vampires. It's merely a matter of time before the Demon Armies start to arrive and this is the mouth of hell, this has to stay under human control"

Bond nodded, "you're recruiting then"

"Yes"

Bond paused, considering, then with a smile, "In, it's about time I had a change. Just don't expect me to do anything that would damage Queen and Country"

Xander nodded seriously, looking Bond straight in the eye, "I wouldn't expect you too"

Bond nodded, "I know a few people I would like to recruit however, they all know' and they can help he sighed, I just wish Q was still around, he would have been perfect..."

"Good fighter?" Xander asked, kindly, sensing a recent loss.

Bond smiled," No, resident mad scientist..."

Xander chuckled, "I can see how he would have been useful in your line of business, and would have been useful here"

Bond nodded once, and Xander grinned, his trademark goofy grin slipping across his face like the mask it was, "recruit away, the more the merrier, after all, who wants to be left out of the party?"

Bond just shock his head, and walked away.

* * *

Daniel put down the phone with a sigh, and glanced at the door.

"What is the matter Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.

"I'll let you know..." the sound of a key entering the lock filled the room and Daniel rolled his eyes slightly, "never mind"

"What's up kids?" O'Neill slammed the door shut with his foot, his hands filled with bags of food and drinks.

"Message from Hammond"  Daniel replied, making Carter and Jack drop their bags swiftly,  _"Prometheus _ has tried to scan Sunnydale five times over the last day, no luck. Something is blocking their sensors but so far they haven't determined what exactly"

"The sensors on _Prometheus _are based off Goa'uld designs are they not?" Teal'c asked.

"Well, yes basically2 Carter replied.

Then we appear to have a field, maybe a jammer which blocks Goa'uld sensors and makes Goa'uld symbiotes uncomfortable in a town from which a letter originated describing a Goa'uld" Teal'c stated.

 "Hammond wants to know if we need additional personnel deployed here"

O'Neill thought, then quietly said, "Have them put on standby"

* * *

"That's cemetery number five" Cooper commented, a little awed and disquietened.

"There are seven in total" Gerard commented, his eyes hard.

Cosmo shook his head, "I've seen towns with more, but they have always been small cemeteries, these are large"

"They are indeed" Gerard added, darkly.

"Lots of people must be dieing here" Cooper added.

"Sure as hell don't look like a gang problem" Cosmo continued.

"And the cops are scared, maybe even covering it up" Cooper finished off.

Gerard nodded, "I need to know what Gangs on PCP' means and I need to know it yesterday"

"We're going to need more bodies" Cosmo replied, glancing out the back window as the cemetery disappeared behind them, his eyes catching a blonde figure as she walked through the gates.

"I'll clear it with Marshall Walsh, you just find someplace to put them" Gerard answered, his hands held lightly on the steering wheel as he turned the car.

Cosmo shook his head, "What kind of person goes into the cemetery this late at night?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Four**

Harry walked out of the Motel Room, not noticing the worried glances of his friends and wife as he stepped out the door and began the long, lonely walk through the centre of town towards the warehouse district and the docks.

He needed to think, to clear his mind and make a decision. He knew that vampires existed of course, he had been black ops and Omega long enough to have seen them, and even to have killed a few but Gibbs was his backup field agent and Faisil technical support, they had not seen because they, Faisil in particular, had fewer chances to notice the true darkness in the world around them.

He had tried to protect that ignorance, that innocence, but it seemed that he may have to make a choice that would reveal the dark to them soon enough. He didn't want to, he was after all, a protector, a guardian at heart, even if he was very proactive about it and that part of him cherished even the slightest hint of innocence, wanted him to protect it, nurture it. Not strip it away from his friends as it had been so casually stripped away from him.

The letter made more sense now of course, I mean, if you want to wage a war against the dark, who better then the black ops types who were not only very well trained, but knew how to keep their mouths shut and certainly have a greater chance then many of already having seen the dark and survived.

But, did he have the right to take the choice away from his friends, from his wife?

For that matter, did he really want to get involved?

Harry snorted, bad question, well, wrong question more like. He wanted to get involved, had done so for years, but it was always a case that he knew he would no survive long enough doing it on his own and to truly make a difference, you needed a support organisation around you, one which knew the dangers, knew the risks and would support you all the way. Teams of people of the frontline helped too.

It seemed this Harris was trying to set that up, so that left the question, did he want to work for Harris? For that matter, other then delusional and a little psychotic, not unusual in his line of business, what kind of person, what kind of leader was Harris?

And did Harris truly have Earths, humanities best interests in mind or did he have his own mission, that God Emperor Business was worrying there...

Harry sighed, one way or another he would have to find out. After he dealt with these five vampires of course, but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle, they were pretty stupid after all. I mean, they were trying to follow him, what greater indication of stupidity did you want?

* * *

"Gerard, you are not going to believe this..."

"Oh, I have an open mind, I want to believe" Gerard shot Cooper a slight smile at her who do you think you're kidding look?', and finished off, "shoot"

"I had a little trouble getting data from Census about this town so I did some checking. Did you know this towns death rates were classified?"

Gerard chuckled, "nice one Coops, had me going there for a minute, so what's really up?"

Gerard's smile vanished as he caught the look on Coppers face, "you are kidding, right?"

Cooper shook her head no, "I have a few sources chasing that up but the classification is high, but one thing did crop up, did you know the High School Newspaper has an obituary column?"

Gerard looked disturbed, "Most school newspapers have a monthly or biannually obituary column"

Cooper shook her head, handing a newspaper over with the relevant section circled in thick red pen, "this one's weekly"

Gerard glanced at the paper, and the long list of names, looking more then a little disturbed. His jaw clenched, and he glanced up at Copper, his eyes hard and dangerous, "We are not leaving this town until we know exactly what is going on here, understood?"

Cooper nodded, "no arguments here..."

* * *

"Holy shit!" Forest breathed.

"Uh huh" Graham breathed, his eyes wide with shook and awe.

Riley shook his head, "Excuse me, but did anyone else just see a California Blond, somebody who looks like they should be on the cheerleading team just wade through ten vampires as if they weren't even there?"

Graham glanced around the graveyard, uneasily "yea"

"Well" Forest commented, "at least we know what the demons are afraid of now"

Riley glanced at Forest sceptically, "Yes we know, but even with the pictures, do you really think Walsh is going to believe us?"

"Point", Forest replied, "and besides, what is she, because human she certainly isn't, not when she just waded through ten vampires like that"

Riley grimaced, "Ten to one Walsh sends us to 'retrieve' her for 'scientific examination' "

Forrest shook his head, "I don't take sucker bets"

Graham grunted, and then frowned, "where did she vanish too anyways?"

"No idea, we should have followed her" Riley snorted, "somehow, she sure moved fast"

"Why, thank you... I think"

The agents froze, sending each other 'oh shit' looks, then, as one; they carefully glanced up into the tree above them.

"Hi, my name is Buffy, and you would be Graham, Riley and Forrest right?"

Riley grimaced, glancing at his team-mates, "Walsh is going to _kill _ us"

"Yea" came the monosyllabic reply from Graham.

* * *

"That was Hammond" O'Neill commented, carefully placing the phone back into its cradle and resisting the urge to throw it at the wall, "he's just had to call the President to get him to call Kinsley to get the NID of our backs"

Carter and Daniel traded disgusted, unamused glances as O'Neill continued, "And as soon as the President heard where we were, he ordered us out too"

"Wait" Daniel said, "the _President _ ordered us out of Sunnydale?"

"The President has put an exclusion order in place, no SG teams are allowed within fifteen miles of Sunnydale"

"You're kidding" Daniel replied, a little shocked.

O'Neill shot Daniel a wry look, "nope"

"I would be most interested in the reasoning behind that decision" Teal'c offered.

"So would I... O'Neill grimaced, now, "we have just six hours to get fifteen miles outside of town else the President drops treason charges on our heads. Call it an hour to pack and drive to be safe, we have five hours to find out what the hell is going on before we can leave"

"Well" Carter interjected, "I have completed modifications to this sensor which should allow us to detect the direction the interference field is coming from, but we will need to triangulate"

O'Neill nodded, sliding his pistol into his belt, "then we had best move, and fast"

* * *

"That was a phone call from Buffy" Giles said, his glasses once gain being cleaned as he walked from his office into the library, "she's bringing in the Initiative team, apparently at bow-point"

Bond raised an eyebrow,  _"Bow- _point?"

Giles nodded, "yes, most guns will only injure vampires and annoy anything else. A bow on the other hand seems to work against most things. Even dust vampires if you manage a heart shot"

Bond nodded, already listing and sorting through bow manufacturers in his head.

Xander just chuckled, guessing swiftly what the British agent was up to "we got bows, everything from longbows to repeaters and compounds but we don't tend to buy the expensive ones. Damn things get broken all the time..."

Bond nodded, and revised his mental list, hand already reaching for his mobile.

Xander nodded, turning to Giles, "If we can get the Initiative boys on our side and nix the NID takeover we'll be set as far as government liaison and support goes..."

Xander sighed and Bond cleared his throat, "okay, we will be set as far as the _American _ government goes, but you still have to arrange connections with the Brits"

"I doubt that will be too much of an issue, I know the SAS maintains at least one dedicated hunter team as does the SBS and strangely enough, the Air Force Regiment" Bond shrugged, "If they think there is a genuine danger, then they will of course send a team to assist but three teams is not a lot to cover the whole British isles"

Xander nodded, seeing what Bond was trying to say, "Best bet then would be to have the current Heads of the Council arrested, I don't know about British law, but under American they certainly have a few things to answer for"

Bond shot Xander an annoyed look, "We will have no difficulty finding something to charge them with, I assure you. I assume you mean to replace the council heads with more friendly' individuals?"

"Giles"

Bond smiled, as Giles stammered, startled.

"Of course" Bond nodded, "that gives you access to all the Councils funds, a head who will treat the slayers and potentials as humans, not tools and who can be trusted to have the best interests of earth in mind. I assume the council would then take a more proactive role against the demons then?"

Giles stammered, "Well, yes of course"

Bond nodded, "there is a problem still. That would make the Council another Allied organisation, a trusted one maybe, but an ally. At this point you either have to work for Giles if we can force a change in council leadership or arrange funding of your own. You will not survive long if you have to leech off every other demon hunting organisation out there"

Xander grimaced, "Money. I didn't think about that"

The look Bond shot Xander could best be described as a mixture of annoyance, resignation, amusement and tiredness, "these things cost money Xander, lots of it. You will need to find it somehow"

Xander sighed, slouching in his seat.

Then, he stiffened and Bond glanced at him interested. It seemed he had an idea already, good. The boy might not be too good at spotting problems on his own but boy, if he knew what the problem was, he sure seemed to come up with ideas fast.

"Giles, is the CRD place still available?"

"Well, as far as I know, yes"

"good, because we are going into the technology business"

Xander smiled at Bond and Giles uncomprehending looks," listen, I may not understand the stuff myself, science has never been my strong point"

Giles snorted at that, and Xander grinned wryly before continuing, "But my possession knew what he was doing technology wise. I have his memories if not his understanding, but if I draw a diagram of say a Bolter from memory I'm sure we could employ a few people to build them, find out how they work and then sell them"

"Good Lord" Giles said, and even Bond sent Xander an approving look.

"First we have to acquire some seed money though" Xander sighed," that will be the problem, even with the low prices of buildings in Sunnyhell"

Bond nodded swiftly, "not a problem. If my job wasn't so classified I would be on Britain 's Rich List... the advantage of looting rights, good pay and immunity to most taxes, I can _loan _ you the money" Xander nodded at the emphasis, "but we will need to arrange competent and trustworthy people to run the company, preferably people who know about the dark. I can not see you staying off the frontlines and you can't do both without problems"

Xander nodded, not noticing the gleam that was coming into Bonds eyes, "now, for head of the company, what do you think about Bill Gates?"

Xander and Giles both shot Bond disgusted looks, but it was Giles who spoke, "If he wasn't a Bracken demon, the council would have arranged an accident years ago"

Bond was so surprised, his jaw almost dropped, "Gates is a _demon?" _

"Two-thirds Bracken demon, unfortunately they have never attempted to end the world or even take control of it which means the council is naturally reluctant to anger them"

Xander shrugged, "suddenly a lot of things are starting to make more sense..."

"Quite" Bond commented.

"So, seriously, we do we approach for company head?" Xander shot an apologetic look at Bond and Giles, "I'm afraid I have to drop this one in your courts, the only competent business woman I know is Mrs Summers"

"Mrs Summers you say? Where does she work?"

"The Art Gallery in town" Xander replied.

Bond smiled, "well, it appears I have to see a woman about some art..."


	5. Chapter 5

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**

* * *

Okay, thank you to everyone who reviewed:**

**Dr Shubert: **yes**  
RankukonAlpha:** heh, Im afraid he is alive.**

* * *

**

**Five**

Harry sighed, glancing once more at the door to his motel room before shaking his head and walking back down the street. He knew what he had to do, what he was supposed to have done as soon as he had confirmation that the area was swarming with demons but frankly, his mind had been elsewhere and it had slipped past.

Not that Spencer would blame him too much, he might have retired from fieldwork a long time ago but Harry had caught the look Spence sent him as he left the room and he knew exactly what he had really been sent to discover.

He reached the phone booth, causally shoving an improvised stake into the back of the vampire inside and cut its call off. Smirking slightly, he checked remaining credit before calling out, the vampire had obviously expected to be on quite a while, he had credit enough for what he wanted, might even get some change out of it. What kind of vampire wears tweed and glasses anyway? Looked more like a bookstore owner then a savage creature of the night

"Boris here, get me Omega One. Pass code is raven black"

_"Hold please" _

Harry glanced around, checking for hostiles or any civvies who could overhear his conversation, none, he glanced around the booth checking one more time for bugs, not that there were likely to be any, but you always had to check.

_"Boris, how are things is sunny California?" _

"Dead, very very dead. Its 11pm and no-one is in the streets except some graverobbers..."

There was a slight pause before Spencer replied, and then it was with the careful tones that signalled quite clearly to the veteran agent that Spencer knew exactly what he was on about, but just wanted to make sure before coming to any conclusions, _"Oh? What kind of graverobbers?" _

"The kind that dig themselves out of their own graves and have fangs, yellow eyes and deformed faces"

_"Vampires" _Harry raised a surprised eyebrow, not often you get to hear that kind of venom in his bosses voice, _"Is that a real problem in the area?" _

Harry grimaced, "the town is swarming, and not just with vampires, we have demons too and in quantity. There is a local resistance group but it's small and consists mainly of teenagers, at least one of whom is potentially an enhance', a Xander Harris'. I wouldn't rule out further enhanced humans in the group. If I was a betting person, I would say the message was a subtle recruitment pitch"

_"Subtle?" _

Harry grinned slightly at the incredulous tone in his bosses voice, "Mr Harris has the right sense of humour for that..."

Harry stifled a chuckle at Trilby's muttered 'ye gods', and not even bothering to hide his amusement, asked for his orders. There was a pause, and then a deep heartfelt sigh before Spencer replied.

_"Brief the others then make contact. Find out exactly what's going on inside Sunnydale and be prepared to make a list of recommendations. Where are they based?" _

"The library of the high school they appear to go to"

_"The High School library?" _

Harry winced, holding the phone away from his ear as Spencer's voice blared down the line, "I am afraid so"

_"Harry, find out what the hell is going on in that town or don't come back, is that understood?" _

"Perfectly sir" Harry replied, and then hung up the phone. He agreed totally, he wanted to know exactly why children Dana's age were apparently fighting vampires too.

* * *

Bond didn't pause as he walked through the door of the Art Gallery, his face already wearing the mask of the competent, reasonably affluent businessman out to buy, his eyes quickly falling upon the gracious lady that had to be Mrs Summers. 

His face slid into a smile easily, she wasn't exceptionally beautiful but she seemed to have a grace and warmth that more then made up for that minor fault, add to that the subtle pain in here eyes which stirred his admittedly chauvinistic protective urges and Bond knew he was going to have to be careful around this woman.

He wasn't here for that, and mixing work and pleasure was always a bad idea and this lady was tightly linked to work so that put her in his don't touch' list, along with Moneypenny, but then, everyone whom knew him well understood that was just his equivalent of a running joke anyway.

"Good Afternoon, I was looking for a piece of art for my new house and was told you were the one to talk too"

This Lady was the only businessperson the gang knew and that gave him an obligation to check her out, see if she was capable of running the support end of what would soon be their business. He just hoped that with all the work he was putting in, he managed at least a board position out of this.

* * *

"Hey, check out that big guy walking towards the school" Cooper quietly said. 

"Holy shit..." Cosmo blurted, his eyes quickly catching sight of the figure, "isn't that guy the agent from the keys? The one with the daughter and those nut jobs with nukes?"

Gerard frowned, biting slightly at his nails, his other hand guiding the car through the streets, "message like that, not surprising that other agencies have sent people"

"Yeah," Cosmo replied, "but which agency?"

Gerard shook his head, "no idea, but we need to know. Soon as I've briefed the others, check it out please"

"Got it" Cosmo responded.

* * *

"Dammit!" O'Neill cursed, then grimaced, holding his head very tight as a shaft of pain rocketed through his head. That combined with the sticky feeling running down his face and the cotton wool that seemed to be lining his mind when he want moving meant only one thing, concussion. 

Perfect, wasn't it Daniel who was supposed to get concussed all the time, not him?

An inarticulate groan sounded over to his left, and O'Neill grimaced, that sounded like Carter and she didn't sound too healthy either.

"You okay Carter?"

"No, concussion I think... broken leg"

The answer was slow, drawn out and O'Neill winced in sympathy, then winced for real as the movement sent another shaft of pain through his head. Perfect... and from the smell, he guessed at least one person didn't have to worry about being sick

"Can you see Daniel or Teal'c?"

"No... sir"

"Perfect!" O'Neill cursed, and willed himself to stay awake as he felt blackness try and claim him once more.

* * *

"Can you see O'Neill or Carter Teal'c?" 

"I cannot"

"Damn" Daniel cursed, the rattling of chains echoing through the warehouse as once again he tested his bonds, trying to see if there was anyway out of them. Or at least, anyway he could use to get out of them. O'Neill had given him a little training at escape and evasion, as had life in the program, but getting out of heavy iron chains was still beyond him, "well, at least we now know there are no Goa'uld loose in Sunnydale..."

"Do you know what those were Daniel Jackson?"

"No, but they met the description in that message perfectly" Daniel paused, "except they left out the insane part. The stars said to capture us the kitten has become a bright glowing light" he shook his head, "at least the Goa'uld are insane in a predictable way"

"Indeed"

"Least I'm in one piece, no concussion this time"

"In that you are most fortunate Daniel Jackson"

* * *

Riley was embarrassed, and more then a little annoyed. 

With all the special' and black' training on top of basic he had been getting ready for the Initiative project a mere three years and on his first deployment he and his team are quite successfully ambushed. Not just that, but ambushed by a young _girl _ who was right now blowing bubbles in her gum and twisting her hair whilst looking at her homework. She didn't even look dangerous or even hostile, yet she had captured them quite successfully.

It was more then a little embarrassing.

Then, on top of that, she had chucked them in a cage inside the high school library... They were being kept prisoner in the High School for heavens sakes!

Riley just really hoped the rest of the teams never ever found out about this, else he, Graham and Forrest would never live it down. Captured by a California blonde

Okay, so a very dangerous California blond who quite possibly had demon in her DNA somewhere, no other way she could have been so fast and deadly dealing with those HSTs but a California blond cheerleader type none the less.

Riley really hoped no-one ever found out about this.

* * *

Harry rubbed his head where Helen had hit him, "okay that certainly could have gone better." 

"Could have gone better he says" Gibbs replied angrily, and Harry winced, he hadn't realised he had actually said that out loud, "you threw a vampire in the room with us and locked the door"

"Well, I needed to show you vampires existed!" Harry protested, shrinking back slightly from the looks his team was giving him.

"Honey," Helen looked up from where she was tending to the now injured Faisil, "there are far safer and subtler ways of showing us that vampires exist, you don't have to chuck a vampire into the room, follow it up with a pair of stakes and a bottle of holy water and say Have fun!'"

Harry shrugged; it had seemed a good idea at the time, "but... Honey, I..."

"Faisil, you'll live. Just a surface wound. Honey, you're sleeping on the couch for the next _month" _

"Ah, now that's harsh" Faisil commented, glancing sympathetically at Harry, and then he frowned, "hey, but you did chuck a _vampire _ in at us, you did cause this wound, Helen, sure you don't want to make it two months?"

"Please," Helen shot Harry a dark smirk, "like I could last that long..."

Gibbs and Faisil exchanged looks, and came to the universal conclusion that it would be safer if they didn't touch that one, not even with a twenty foot barge pole.

"So, vampires exist" Gibbs frowned suddenly, his mind working over his words.

Faisil shuddered, "that just sounds so wrong"

"Right," Gibbs bounced on his feet, "so Harry, I assume there was some reason you introduced us to these things? We gonna slay us some Demons now?"

"No," Harry smiled, "We're gonna meet the local hunters" an angry, protective note crept into his voice, "and find out why it falls to High School kids to deal with these and not the authorities"

"Wait, kids?" Helen interrupted abruptly.

"Of the local demon hunting team, only two members are out of school. The others are near Dana's age"

Gibbs frowned, "wait, those kids Faisil spotted? The ones we have been running surveillance on? They're for real, they're the local hunters?"

"Yes" Harry replied simply, not hiding the expression on his face.

"That's obscene" Helen's voice hid none of the anger and disgust she felt and the others nodded at the emotion in her words.

"Yes," Harry reached down, pulling spare clips from his luggage and hiding them about his body, "and we are going to go find out why..."


	6. Chapter 6

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Six**

It was a very bemused Gerard that slowly placed the phone back in its cradle and glanced across at his teammates, who were looking at him with more then a little curiosity in their expressions.

He shook his head, leaning backwards in his seat, "well, it seems that our enquires into the agent from the keys incident has drawn some high level interest..."

"How high?" Cosmo asked, curious but not really paying attention, his face once more buried in the laptop screen in front of him.

"That was President Ryan on the phone"

The pencil fell from Cosmos mouth, "President Ryan, Jack Ryan?"

"He says he would greatly appreciate it if we left Mr Tasker alone," Gerard shrugged, amused, "well, we got a name now at least"

"I'll get right onto it" Cosmo promised.

Gerard nodded, "We also have to find out why Ryan is willing to break the law and try and interfere in an ongoing investigation"

"Great," Cooper commented wryly, "this investigation just gets more and more fun all the time"

* * *

Riley felt sick, almost physically so. 

He was a soldier, he had joined to serve his country, to do what he felt was right and whilst he had heard a lot of horror stories about what the government could be like he had never given them any credit, till now.

He hadn't raised an eyebrow when General West was relived of command and replaced with a researcher because it didn't take a genius to figure out that actually researcher the monsters and not just killing them would pay off better in the long run. In the end, wars were won and lost on the basis of who knew the most, who had the best intelligence and he had thought the Demons had them beat by quite a margin, that they would need to learn as much as they could as fast as they could but to find out that all they needed to know was already out there, that Walsh was placed in command to carry out grossly illegal and immoral experimentation not just on the demons but on the soldiers working for her too

He had thought the only problem with a researcher being in command was there tendency to care only for their work, a tendency to lose sight of the road, a tendency indeed not to know how military operations actually worked and more often then not, not even care, how wrong he was!

To find out that the NID had carefully seized control of the project, an agency that was in theory merely an external watchdog for black ops had gotten rotten to the core and was planning to create a supersoldier for their own uses from demons, humans and machinery

It was disgusting, abominable.

He wished he could say he didn't believe, but strangely enough he did.

The computer records from Willows hacks could have been faked off course, that device they showed him was in his shoulder they might have placed there themselves whilst he was asleep, but he didn't think so, he believed them.

He didn't want to, the part of him that had made him join up in the first place truly wanted to believe that their government, the government of the United States of America was better then that, but still he believed.

Riley shook his head, and turned, catching the eyes of his team. They nodded slightly, imperceptibly.

"Fine," Riley replied, his tone screaming Danger, vengeful soldier at large' "if the NID have managed to seize control and pervert the purpose of the Sub-Human Initiative, then by God we are going to take the project back, one way or the other"

* * *

"So," Gibbs commented, his eyes leaving the door to the library just long enough to sweep across the corridor once, checking for potential threats, "how do you suppose we do this? Just go in and say Hi, we heard you slayed vampires and want in?'" 

"I don't want in," Helen replied, a firm but disgusted, angry note in her voice, "I want to know why the only people fighting in this town have to do so between homework assignments"

Gibbs nodded, "okay, then we get the librarian alone and torture him till he tells us what the hell is going on?"

The windows on the double doors to the library shattered abruptly, an arm reaching out, grabbing Gibbs and pulling him swiftly through the hole left by the still falling glass.

Shocked by the abruptness of the move, it took Harry a record full second to react, his pistol clearing his holster as he slammed through the doors, low and fast.

He stopped abruptly; jaw dropping slightly as he caught the scene in front of him. A young lady, Miss Summers according to the card file in his head, was holding the taller and certainly heavier Gibbs up, his feet kicking at her ankles.

"Touch one hair, just _one hair _ on our Giles head and they will bury you in Alaska... and Washington, and London and about twenty other places, get me?"

Harry shuddered involuntary, he had heard that growl just three times from his wife, it promised pain and worse for whoever was on the wrong side of it. He really didn't want to be in Gibbs place right now.

"Really Buffy," the tone was bemused and a little embarrassed and it didn't take a leap of imagination to figure that it was Giles, the librarian who was speaking, just out of his sight, "was that really necessary?"

Buffy growled, "He threatened family, of course it was necessary"

"Watch it Buffy, you'll embarrass him," a youthful, boyish voice sounded from behind him, "you know he can't afford to wear away another set of glasses with all the cleaning you're making him do"

Wait

Behind him.

He spun around, pistol raised and stopped abruptly.

A gun was pointed right at Helens head, a big gun, with what looked like a clip full of... f''ing hell, shotgun shells feeding into it, held by what he assumed was the source of the young male voice. A second was in the hands of a giggling red head, pointed at Faisils head.

Dammit, Helen knew the escape move for when a gun was pointed at you from that close range and that angle, but Faisil sucked at it. If they tried, Helen would have a one in five chance of dieing, maybe more depending on how good the kid was, and Faisil one in two, easily higher.

Annoyed, Harry dropped his pistol, kicking it away. Best option was to give the impression of surrender for now, and escape at first choice

But hey, they were here to contact this group, of course he hadn't planned on being disadvantaged but they had contact, why not use it

In fact, the best option might just be for Helen to go into full-on overprotective mother mode and if they started discussing vampire hunting and their kills which he had little doubt they would at some point, that button would get pushed big time

Harry hid a smile, he almost felt sorry for the kids... almost.

* * *

Three more weeks 

Just three more weeks of running security for Sunnydale Airport and he would be free to leave this hellhole. Free to forget about the things that disturbed his sleep, free to find a therapist who would help turn all this into a bad dream

And maybe free to do his job properly, he was security for Christ sakes, he was meant to make sure nothing or no-one unauthorised got on or off the planes, but here, here it was a daily occurrence. Yet whilst they all moved under their own steam, they were all... things, not people, things.

He had learned quick enough to turn his back, but he tried to have pride in his work and it _hurt _ to have to turn his back all the time. Well, at least there wasn't anything coming off the Jamaica flight usually, should be safe to do his job properly.

A lithe, dark skinned figure dived from the aircraft with supernatural quickness, shooting him a startled; deer in the headlights look before running across to the perimeter fence and leaping over in one bound.

The man sighed, he hadn't even _said _ it, yet he still managed to tempt Murphy. Dammit, this town was hell, he would be glad when he could get out.

* * *

"What manner of creatures are those Daniel Jackson? I have never seen the like before" 

Daniel didn't even look up, though he did catch and agree with the disgusted and revolted edge to Teal'cs voice, an edge so hard even those who didn't know the warrior would be able to recognise, "yes, well, they seem to fit several of our old legends about vampires, they are certainly drinking blood, have fangs and a human form"

"Do the legends mention what they are and how they can be killed?"

"Well," Daniel tore his eyes reluctantly from the face of what had been an attractive young lady, "according to legend they are demonic but it's consistently reported as a possession in most cultures so it's possible we are looking at a lost Goa'uld off-shoot race. Decapitation, a wooden stake to the heart and sunlight kill them, garlic and an inability to cross running water is mentioned but only in more recent texts..."

Daniel smiled, embarrassed, "my first practise dissertation was on the vampire legends, I found it surprisingly interesting. I did not think there was any truth in the legends however"

"Understandable," Teal'c nodded, "and a fortuitous choice"

"Yes..." Daniel frowned, "wasn't my choice though..."

* * *

Bond took one step into the Library and stopped, an eyebrow swiftly rising as he saw a trio of obvious military types in close discussion with Giles, a discussion that any other time he would have loved to hear on the nature of evil and demons, a group whose manner just screamed feds locked up in the Library's cage, looking rather disgruntled and in the case of at least one member, more and more angry and indignant as the time wore on. 

Bond winced, recognising her type, overprotective and worse, well trained mother, which was trouble of a kind even he tried to avoid. Or maybe watch. From the safety of a different continent.

"I see," he said slowly, "that you've been busy"

Xander shook his head, "turn outs been somewhat disappointing so far, only people in town have been sent by the government, or a government at least"

"Not entirely surprising," Giles rolled his eyes at Xander, "it _does _ take a little more time for serving officers to arrange some leave, transport, accommodation"

"Guys," Willow called anxiously from the computer, "problem"

Exchanging of course there's a problem' looks, the group walked up behind Willow at the computer.

"What have you found on that infernal contraption?"

Bond shot Giles at incredulous look, which was joined by a bemused eye roll from Xander. Willow just shook her head, and started talking.

"One of the teams sent in response to that message has been declared MIA, SG-1 was ordered out of the town by the President but they never left and aren't responding to phone calls," Willow glanced back at Xander, "their bags were found packed in their rooms ready to leave along with most of their equipment ready to go"

Xander grimly nodded, "most likely they have become demon bait, but we need to search anyway, call Buffy in and let's brief Riley and co"

There was a screech behind them, and they spun around to see the cage door ripped off its hinges, a rather furious looking woman stalking towards them. Behind her, her companions, even the walking mountain, were looking rather agog at the hole where a door used to be.

"Oh..." Xander started.

"Shit" Bond finished.


	7. Chapter 7

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Seven**

Cosmo shook his head again, his mouth opening once more as if to ask something, before he shook his head and read the page once more, his disbelieving face to far too close to the screen for comfort.

"You know that description that was posted with the message?"

Cooper rolled her eyes, "Glowing Eyes, Pointy Teeth, Fast, strong and Dead how could I forget?"

Cosmo shook his head bemused and shocked, "I just found an exact match on the net, would you believe Vampires?"

Cooper grimaced, "you know you just cost me twenty dollars right? Gerard bet vampires"

Cooper shook his head, 2that isn't the interesting part; the interesting part is that I'm on a restricted portion of the net, a portion restricted to law enforcement personnel only"

Cooper snorted, "Those sunglasses you wear have finally started rotting your brain"

Cosmo glanced up at Cooper, his expression one of pure seriousness, "Take a look for yourself"

He pushed his chair backwards on its wheels, gesturing the female Marshall towards the computer. More then a little curious now, Cooper dropped the papers she had been looking at back on the desk she was using, and walked across to glance at the screen.

She read it once, blinked. Read it again, her expression flickering from bemused, whose idea of a joke is this to wary, they can't be serious, finally settling on their dead serious, and apparently insane.

"Is this for real?" she finally managed to ask.

Cosmo shook his head, wonderingly, "if anyone had told me about this I would have said no way, but I've looked at it and it appears genuine"

Cooper shot Cosmo a look that was a strange mixture of disturbed, bemused and disbelieving, "there's a website on a restricted law enforcement personnel section of the net that just lists the signs of..." she paused, her tone incredulous, "vampirism and demonic attacks and where to go for help, not to mention what looks to be a list of vigilante groups with a strong suggestion to look the other way"

Cosmo turned to face Cooper, his pen tapping agitated at the corner of his mouth, "yeah, but take a look at the number one slot on that list"

"Miss Summers and Company, Sunnydale California" Cooper grimaced, "I think we better call in Gerard, and fast"

Cosmo already had his phone out, finger resting on speed dial one, "way ahead of you"

* * *

Giles gulped as the furious figure stalked towards him, it hadn't escaped his notice that this women had apparently managed to straight _tear _ the door of the cage off and as that had managed to withstand the strength of the odd vampire when they had had a need to capture one, he knew straight off she was either not entirely human or was very very pissed off.

Judging by her expression, he was going to go with pissed off.

Damn, but she looked fine though, the sheer anger and righteous fury that radiated off her called to the Ripper within him. Giles squashed it down, now was not the time for that particular element from his past.

He felt tightness around his neck and grimaced, he hated it when people lifted him up by his jumpers, it choked and left marks. Of course, that was probably what this fury wanted.

"Just what do you think you're doing sending _children _ out to fight the vampires and demons? That's no job for these! they should be worried about grades and dates not the monsters under the bed!!

Giles winced as she shook him hard, still only holding him up by one hand, his feet well and truly clear of the floor, in fact they were at the perfect height to kick her knees out. He doubted that would help the situation anyway.

"Answer me!"

He choked as she shook him again and again, not really giving him any opportunity to speak. He was praying that someone would come to his aid, get this valkyrie to stop for a few seconds, hopefully not one of his kids though, they might end up as collateral damage, let one of her companions try and get her back under control.

"Ahh Helen, he can't talk if you don't let him breathe"

Giles almost felt grateful for the little weasel, this Gibbs' that Buffy had pulled right through the door earlier as he was finally allowed to breathe, and speak. Pausing a few seconds to get his breathe back and catalogue his body for potential injuries, Giles decided it was best he talked, Before Buffy had one of her rash ideas.

He also decided that honesty was certainly the best policy in this case, there were few things more dangerous then a mother's protective instinct and unfortunately for him, this women appeared not only to be displaying that but the company she was keeping and her mannerisms suggested she had received more then a little training. That took her from dangerous to, to quote Monty Python, 'Run away, run away!' status.

Pity he couldn't run away right now; let Buffy deal with this. It would teach her for all the trouble she put him through.

"Talk!"

Okay, less thinking more talking Giles decided as he was shook once more.

"Buffy is the Slayer..."

"The. What?"

Giles resisted the urge to shudder, just. That was an very impressive growl his captor had just let loose.

"Slayer, Unto each generation there is a Slayer, one girl in all the world given the strength and the power to destroy the demons, the vampires and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer"

"Oh please," Giles winced at the dangerously scornful tone in his captor's voice, "do you really expect us to believe that?"

"Yes!" came the chorused reply and Giles glanced past this Helen' to see Buffy doing her arm exercises, with Gibbs and the tank as the weights. The rather incongruous image wasn't helped by the fact that in order to lift the walking tank up, Buffy actually had to stand on a chair, said chair was groaning rather noticeably under the combined weight.

"Oh, do stop showing off Buffy"

He sighed thankfully as his feet touched ground once more, Helen so shocked by what she was seeing that she let him go. Of course, she seemed to be coming down from the adrenaline rush which enabled her to tear the cage door off and that would help him too so long as nobody started her off again.

His feet rose swiftly off the ground once more, and Giles resisted the urge to roll his eyes, of course, she could set _herself _ off again, that would certainly help... not.

"Who chooses?"

Giles grimaced; there was enough bite in that simple sentence to tear a Het-trogh demon apart and they literally had five inches of steel armour on their body. Damn good thing they tended to be herbivores, last time one went rampage it took four five inch cannons to take the damnable thing out.

"I don't know," Giles replied honesty, "If anyone knows they aren't telling either. There are a few theories but no evidence. What is known is that in each generation there are a small number of girls who have a potential' for enhanced strength, reflexes, senses, instinctive knowledge of weapons. When the previous Slayer dies, one of these will be activated and that potential will become reality. Slayers are activated between the ages of 12 and 18 generally, though younger and older have been recorded on isolated occasions"

"How long do they last?"

Giles winced at the question from Gibbs, who couldn't possibly know how appropriate his phrasing was, even if it had gotten him more then a few dark looks from his companions.

"Most don't see their eighteenth birthdays"

Very dark looks crossed the eyes of the group at that, but Helen did at least let him go. Prehaps she saw he was being honest with her, not that it mattered, he was just grateful to have both feet on the ground and an unobstructed airway once more.

"Do they have a choice?" the one called Harry asked and Giles hsook his head, more then a little sad.

"No, and as soon as they are activated... Might as well have a target painted on their heads. A lot of demons and vampires will seek them out to kill them just for the bragging rights"

"What about the others?"

Giles smiled fondly around the children he considered his family in response to that question, "they chose. They chose to fight, to make a difference"

"I couldn't, wouldn't turn my back, not knowing what's out there" he shot Xander a proud fatherly look as the boy spoke, "most people in this town, they just don't want to know, don't want to see, me, I wanted to do something about it"

That earned the boy a look of grudging respect from the new arrivals Giles was happy to notice, but still, there was business to be done.

"Be that as it may, we have a missing government team in town to search for. Most likely they are dead by now, but we must search anyway, if only to ascertain whether they will rise or not"

Giles noted the quick exchange of glances and looks, but couldn't quite decipher its meaning. But then, most groups who worked together for a long time seemed to naturally develop their own silent method of communicating, certainly the terrible trio of Buffy Xander and Willow had.

Rather grudgingly, Giles noticed, Helen asked if they could use some assistance. It didn't take a genius to surmise that she would rather get the kids well away from here, safe and out of harms way whilst she did the work herself but the kids knew the job, knew the terrain and he rather doubted any of the new group did.

He would have to find out who they worked for; new group' was cutting it as a name.

"Always," he replied, walking towards the cage, "but you will need to be properly equipped, I'm afraid most demons shrug off normal bullets. Xander, Buffy, Willow, I suggest you go home and get your armour on, I'll instruct these in the proper weapons and tactics"

Giles frowned slightly, as once again Buffy and Willow both looked to Xander for confirmation before obeying his request, which was getting on his nerves, but then, he was going to have to get used to the fact that he wasn't in charge anymore. Not, he had to admit, that anyone bar Buffy had ever really been in charge of Buffy, not as long as he knew her anyway.

The door swung shut, and Giles turned around, anticipating another interrogation now that the kids were out of the way, but the door swung again, and he glanced across, who had forgotten something?

It wasn't the Scooby's, it was a pair of girls, twins he assumed, both dressed in identical outfits of jeans, black tops and white trainers. Both were chewing gum.

"Dana?2 he glanced across at the startled and befuddled question from Harry and Gibbs, "and.. Dana?"

Giles glanced at Harry more then a little askance foe that addition, surely his daughter showing up wasn't that much of a surprise?

"Harry is it just me or is there two Danas?"

Giles frowned at the girls then; it wasn't that they showed up, it was that there were two of them that bore investigating. He whispered a quick spell and for a moment a blue aura with broad bands of purple surrounded the two girls on his eyes. Ah, no threat then, they just planned some mischief. This should be worth watching.

"Hi mom; just thought we ought to let you know you've got two daughters now, me will be moving in with me and us next week! Just to warn you though... one of us gets into trouble with nut jobs with nukes and the other hunts vampires"

Giles had to admire them for that, he didn't know how long they had been planning that but Helen and Harry had both fainted.

"You were right Faith, they _did _ faint!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Eight**

Xander chuckled, his armour whining as he slid his over large power sword into its holster, "I didn't figure you for a coward Bond"

"Excuse me," Bond replied, his lips twitching slightly upwards, "I have no idea what you are talking about"

"Bullshit," Xander succinctly replied, "you saw Helen Tasker lose her temper and you dived for the sewer access so fast I could have sworn they named a new warp factor after you. If everyone's attention wasn't riveted on Giles and Helen they would have spotted you too"

"Well," Bond was openly smiling now, "all these years of experience have left me with a healthy appreciation for a tactical withdrawal"

"What," Xander laughed, "you'll face down terrorists, megalomaniacs and worse, but not an overprotective mother?"

"Some things," Bond replied, "count as acting above and beyond your duty, that's one of them"

Xander smirked, "okay, whatever you say. I'll just make sure everyone receives a copy of the video, including M"

Bond stilled, "Video?"

"Snyder had a camera rigged in the corner, hoping to catch us out. It still works perfectly fine, except it's been rerouted to a computer at a restricted location," Xander chuckled, evilly, "it was pointed in the right direction to record this nice piece of blackmail. I hope it was working okay"

Bond shot him an amused scowl, but laughed, "Trust me, I have been caught in far more compromising positions"

"I'll take your word on that," Xander replied, "anyway, any thoughts on the chairpersons' post?"

Bond nodded, "I did a check on Mrs Summers, she certainly has the skills for the job but she has never run anything larger then a five person business and this will be significantly larger then that"

Xander nodded, "Yeah, but does she have the confidence for it?"

Bond smiled, "I wouldn't bet against it"

"Then I suggest we brief her, give her the company but make sure the people immediately around her are competent and trustworthy"

Bond smiled, making a mental note of the instructions, "Agreed"

"You will have British Government Liaison of course, and I was thinking one of the Tasker's for US government, any others I suggest we add as needed"

"What about the Initiative soldiers?"

"Fair question," Xander shrugged, the expression oddly amplified his bulky armour, "if they can nix the NID in the bud, if sensible leadership can be arranged then I suggest a high degree of cooperation, we will both have the same agenda in mind after all, keep Earth spinning with humanity on it. If not, then they will have to be considered a threat and treated as such"

"Cold," Bond commented, "but I have to agree completely. If they do go rogue, then I have contacts enough to ensure the right people know, that will help"

Xander smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile, more a tired smile, "agreed, of course we still have to figure out exactly which agency the Taskers work for," he smirked, "I might actually just ask them, they were in shock enough when we left that they might actually forget themselves and answer"

Bond chuckled, "maybe so, but we still have to find this SG-1' and rescue their arses, and we have Gerard in town and he is a pit-bull, he wont leave until he has figured out exactly what is going on"

Xander shrugged," is he a good person?"

Bond nodded, 2if the file I was sent is anything to go by, very much so"

"Then we approach him after we have dealt with SG-1, that way we don't have to worry so much about the dangers to the uninitiated in Sunnydale and maybe, just maybe we can get an ally in law enforcement"

The aging British spy thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "that may be the best option, only we will have to make sure we capture a vampire to demonstrate, other wise they will try to have us sectioned"

"Sectioned?" Xander asked.

Bond chuckled, "I had assumed America had a mental health act... naturally, you blew that perception right out of the water"

Xander tried and failed to look reproving, "very funny"

"When do the first recruits arrive?"

Xander grimaced, "if you mean any special operation types responding to our message, I have no idea, neither does Willlow. Frankly, we could easily lose a few just because they don't know exactly where we are and because they are good enough so that we don't spot them fast enough, its not as if we could just download the files off every single person who would have received that message and start looking for faces at the airports after all"

"It's a problem then"

"Definitely," Xander groaned, "but one we will have to put up with, we don't want more government types in town, no offence, but at some point we would be guaranteed to get a rogue or a pure control type and they would be a problem"

"There's no point in sending out a recruitment message if you cant actually recruit them when we arrive" Bond reasonably pointed out.

"I agree" Xander shook his head, his hand reaching for the door handle, he was ready for the mission now, "but whilst we will spot a few and whilst a few will spot us, we do have one real advantage"

"Really," Bond frowned, "other then playing home team?"

"No," Xander smirked, "that message wasn't just technological"

Bond's eyebrows shot up as he followed the heavily armoured Xander out the door, "do tell..."

* * *

"Daniel Jackson, I do believe we are being rescued"

Daniel started awake at the Jaffa's words, glancing at the door in time to see the final end of one of the vampire guards.

He blinked, "did that vampire just...?"

"Explode into dust at the application of a wooden stake to its heart? Indeed it did Daniel Jackson"

"Neat," Daniel smiled, "Jack and Sam musty have gotten out"

"I do not believe so," Teal'c stated implacably, "I believe our rescuer has dark skin, she also appears..."

Teal'c stepped back from the door, just in time to avoid a sudden burst of dust which floated into the room, "to be a fine warrior, worthy of the title Jaffa Master"

Daniel blinked again, surprised, for Teal'c that was the equivalent of... well, he couldn't think of anything equivalent, but it was very high praise.

Curious now, he walked straight up the ddoor, glancing out through its large, barred window. His eyes widened as he saw a lithe, fit figure of a girl, not yet even a woman facing off against what appeared to be five vampires and there was enough dust lining the floor that he knew the two he had seen dust hadn't been the only ones.

He had to ask, "is she a...?

"I do not believe so"

Good, he didn't want to be rescued by a Goa'uld, as it wouldn't stay a rescue foe long before it became murderous torture. Still, it raised the question, what was she? Well trained could account for a lot of thee moves she was carrying out, but not some of the sheer brute strength she was displaying.

Another vampire dusted before his eyes, just four left now. Damn, but she was good, three... damn, two in one go, and that last vampire looked scared.

Daniel blinked and missed it, seeing just the slowly wafting dust dropping to the ground as the last vampire died.

"Greetings," the accent was Jamaican Daniel noted as the young lady tore the lock straight out of the door, "my name is Kendra and I have been sent to rescue you"

* * *

Gerard banged his head into the desk, his hands reaching automatically for the headache tablets he knew had to be on his desk, somewhere

"God, I need a drink"

Cosmo snorted," I'll join you for that, this is more then a little surreal"

Gerard snorted, "You think it's surreal? I know the top name on that list and he's an anal-retentive, he doesn't accept anything as true without evidence a jury would hang somebody on. For him to be posting there"

He shook his head, "okay, three, no, four possibilities. One, this is a very bad joke being played on us, most likely by the technical staff. Two, there are a lot of cops out there who have cracked under the strain. Three, I am going to be waking up with a hell of a hangover and this will all have been a dream, four" he shivered," and I will be getting very very drunk but it wont have been a dream"

Cooper grimaced, pointing at the screen, "Well, at least we know what gangs on PCP' means"

Gerard glanced up, following her pointing finger. Grimly, he replied, "vampire attack"

"If that's true," Cosmo replied, his expression showing clearly how disturbed he actually was, "why does Sunnydale have such a high rate of supposed vampire related deaths?"

"I don't know," Gerard replied, reaching for his official US Marshall's jacket, "but I bet Miss Summers and her friends do"

* * *

Graham crawled back up to Riley, his mobile slipping swiftly back into his pocket as the camouflaged soldier picked up his assault rifle, "that was Xander on the phone, there's a team gone missing inside the dale, he wanted to know if we were available to assist with the SAR mission"

Riley quietly snorted, "I hope you said no"

"Of course," Graham smirked, glancing through the bushes at the house of their supposed boss, Maggie Walsh, "we've got business to attend to"

Forrest nodded, "ahem to that"

Riley glanced across at his teammates, "okay, she appears to be on her own but there's no guarantee. Just remember, we know she's dirty as are the NID types that were here earlier but we need to prove it, and for that, we need Walsh alive, understood?2

"Yes sir" Graham replied, followed by a nod from Forrest.

"Go in Three... Two... One..."


	9. Chapter 9

**Emperor Xander  
**this blasted site is till stripping half the formatting, its very annoying, so dont be surprised if its not quite right, as i am having to manually re-add it.  
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, just one question: what little square things? I see none.

also sorry for the delay in updating, but that was out of my hands (the replacement i bought for a dying modem appears to be faulty...)

******Nine**

"They aren't here," Cosmo commented.

"I can see that," Cooper dryly replied, "question is; where are they?"

"Not important," Gerard swung himself into a chair, his feet resting on the library table, casually he reached across and started leafing through a dark aged tome in front of him labelled Vampyr', "they will be back, we can wait"

* * *

"Carter and O'Neill both require medical assistance" Teal'c said, his voice tinged with concern and worry. 

"I know dis," Kendra required, "but I do not know if the hospital be safe for you. Best contact Giles, he is a watcher, he will know what to do"

"Great, so where do we go?" Daniel commented, wincing as he was forced to shift the weight of Carter on his shoulders, causing a pained grunt to sound from the Air Force Officer.

"The High School Library," Kendra grimaced, glancing around annoyed," but I do not know where the high school is, I did not have time to complete my recon of the town"

"We passed the High School on several occasions," the tall Jaffa glanced around pensively, something about this town still setting the infantile Goa'uld in his pouch of, it was distracting and worrying, "but I am afraid I do not recognise any landmarks"

"This," Kendra commented with a sigh, picking a random direction to walk in, "is just perfect"

"Indeed" the tall Jaffa sighed, carefully rearranging his own burden.

* * *

"Well, that didn't go as planned" Forrest wryly commented. 

"No fucking shit!" Graham responded, "How the hell did we miss an extra person in the house?"

Riley grimaced, walking across from the two glaring, but gagged and bound ladies, "Its worse then that"

"How can it be worse?" Forrest shook his head," it's not like she's a cop or anything, right?"

Riley shot him a direct look, and Forrest wilted, "shit"

"That about sums it up," Riley glanced at the two ladies, resisting the urge to ward of the evil eye at the looks they were sending him, "worse, it's a cop I know, met her whilst I was driving for Walsh one day"

Graham and Forrest exchanged looks that clearly said that they felt this was a fucked up situation. As if on cue, both commented.

"Snafu"



"Fubar"

Riley cracked a weak grin, "Gentlemen, I give you Marshall Walsh, who just happens to be the sister of our target"

Graham shook his head, "I should have stayed in bed, but we'd best get moving, this isn't exactly an authorised capture"

"What about the other Walsh?" Forrest asked.

"Bring her," Riley shrugged, "we don't exactly have a choice"

* * *

Xander shook his head, muttering figures' under his breath as they walked around the decrepit warehouse. 

"They break out?" Buffy asked, glancing curiously at the warped and battered cell doors.

"No," Bond only had to glance at the doors for a second to know that, "they were broken out, and by somebody pretty strong to"o

"How strong would you guess?" Giles asked, more then a little concerned.

Bond shrugged, pointing at where a lock used to be, "strong enough to tear a lock straight out of an old, heavy oak door"

Willow blinked, "that's Slayer type strong, most vampires certainly couldn't have managed that. Master vampire could though"

"Do you think a vampire did this?" Bond was curious, why would vampires steal another's prisoners?

"Not likely," Giles replied, "unless they had a purpose for the team, they would either just drain them or kill them. Whilst there is blood, the two who were in this room at least appeared leave under their own power"

"The other two were dragged out" Buffy pointed out.

"Yes," Giles was more then a little puzzled, "but our two friends are wearing shoes with distinctive soles. They dragged their comrades out apparently joined by one other"

"Demon?" Bond questioned.

Giles shook his head, "demons do not generally wear size seven shoes"

"Girls shoes at that" Buffy added, glancing up from the prints, "they show up pretty well in the vamp dust"

"So," Xander slowly said, a puzzled frown lining his face, "we have a girl who can apparently tear through vampires single-handedly and is strong enough to tear locks off doors going around rescuing people"

Everyone got the point, "it does sound like a Slayer," Giles grimaced.

"But I haven't been on my own all day" Buffy pointed out.

"That's the problem" Xander agreed, "We need to know what's going on here and fast. I don't like unknowns, not in this town"

"Agreed" Buffy replied without hesitation.

* * *

"Okay" Harry grinned at the two girls, "explain to me again, why did you decide to pull that little stunt?" 

"Thought it would be cool" Faith commented, lounging back on the bed.

Harry chuckled, "I do like your sense of humour"

"I don't care" Faith shot back, here eyes not quite hiding her amusement.

Gibbs shook his head, "What I want to know is why is there two of you?"

Dana shook her head, popping the balloon she had blown in her gum before answering, "Don't know, thought you might. Didn't lose my twin at birth or something did ya?"

"No," was Gibbs firm reply, "I oversaw security for that myself, no-one got in or out of the hospital without me knowing about it"

"Wait," Helen started, "rising swiftly up from her seat, there was security at the hospital?"

"Of course," Gibbs voice screamed his utter sincerity, "no-one, but no-one was going to disturb that event"

Helen thought about it, and shrugging, sat back down.

"Easy enough to check if your family," Fasil nervously added, "Simple genetic test will answer that"

Harry shook his head, he at least had caught Faiths instinctive wince out of the corner of his eye, "doesn't matter, Dana told me you had lost your own family, she consider you a friend and that's enough for me. Welcome to the Tasker's Faith, blood or not doesn't matter"

Of course, he would do a covert check just to make sure she wasn't a plant but her responses seemed very genuine and she was a little young for that level of training. Not that that had ever bothered certain agencies.

Still, he did want to know exactly who had made her put up so many walls. At her age, she shouldn't have them. Maybe he could arrange a talk' with the responsible party

* * *

Unknown to the citizens of Sunnydale, both human and demonic a trickle had started to flow, a trickle that would soon become a flood. 

An old but beautifully kept cherry red Mustang tore past the Welcome to Sunnydale sign, its owner looking complacent, carefree, but his eyes betrayed his wariness, his caution, his training. At his feet rested the blackened shape of a Combat shotgun.

At LAX, two men got of a plane from France, their heads were cut close, their clothes strangely fit, their whole manner screaming Soldiers, and proud of it. They grabbed their few, military issue bags and ordered a taxi for Sunnydale.

At Sunnydale Docks, a US Navy Destroyer docked just long enough for three forms to dart onto the shore. This warship was headed home for refit and rest, they could afford a short detour to drop people off.

At the small, quiet Sunnydale Airport a tall, tanned figure jumped off a domestic flight, claiming several metallic equipment bags before getting a cab to her hotel

And at Sunnydale Barracks, the new CO asked himself one more time exactly why he had burned so many favours to get such a second rate assignment.


	10. Chapter 10

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

Ten 

"So, you've kidnapped me and my sister because my sister works for an agency of the United States Government?" Marshall Walsh glared at them, "breaking and entering, kidnap and it sounds like you want to add treason to the list, do go on..."

"This isn't going well," Riley commented.

"When Gerard finds out you have kidnapped me, he will come after you and then you are finished," Marshall Walsh continued, "he is a pit-bull when he is on a case, he will not give up"

"Except," Graham commented, "that he's busy in Sunnydale right now and you're officially on holiday"

She chilled, "how do you know where Gerard is?"

"Not important," Riley grimly said, "but whether you like it or not, your sister works for a rogue agency"

"She would never do any such thing"

"Oh", Forrest commented, gesturing his friends to leave the room, "she would"

"Great," Riley commented, closing and barring the door to Marshall Walsh's temporary cell, "now, how do we prove we're on the level and that its Walsh... _our _ Walsh whose dirty?"

"Demonstration," Graham suggested.

Forrest and Riley winced, but nodded, "demonstration"

* * *

The doors to the Library burst open, and a small group of what at first glance appeared to be teenagers burst into the room, chattering noisily. 

At second glance however, Gerard knew that they were not normal teenagers. The Girl, the Slayer Buffy walked like a cheerleader, talked like a cheerleader, but there was an undertone of power, of danger underneath it all, like there was a predator under the surface, biding its time. Which, Gerard supposed was true, in a way.

The boy, this Xander' which the site had described as the heart, the glue of the group had been described as a second string fighter, but that, he saw in an instant, was bullshit. The kid walked like a veteran, proud and tall like a Soldier, one who had seen it all, done it all and was here to tell the tale. More, he walked like like he had an easy assumption of Leadership, like he was a leader and couldn't, wouldn't be anything else.

Gerard mentally wrote off the restricted website as a source for information, either something had happened to greatly shift the group dynamics, or the site was plain wrong, either way he could see for himself that for whatever reason, it wasn't as accurate as it could be as a source.

The Girl, the witch Willow, there was a happy assurance to her, like she knew who, what she was and was content, but with an undertone again of suppressed power and control. Again, the site was off, it had claimed her to be a shy geek, an outcast from the school hierarchy.

Giles now he walked in, the typical picture of a stuffy British researcher, all tweed, glasses and bookish mannerisms, and yet he caught a glimpse, just a momentary flash of a tattoo as the man moved, and in his eyes as he gazed upon the intruders there was a distinct threat, and a fatherly protectiveness of his charges. He too was not all he appeared, or all that the site had claimed him to be.

No, Gerard decided, he would have to make all his judgements for himself and ignore that source. But then, he always did.

"Marshall Gerard, US Marshall's office, I want a word with you"

"Of course," Giles replied, "more then a little warily, what can we help you with?"

"For a start," Gerard said, calmly, clearly, with just a hint of threat, ""you can tell us why an official police website lists your group as vigilantes"

* * *

"This is enough," Kendra asked grumpily, "we cannot walk around the town all night, already we have looked for three hours" 

"What do you propose?" Teal'c replied anxiously, carefully checking his burden and not liking what he was seeing.

Kendra frowned, then calmly walked up the nearest drive and knocked, smiling tightly as a tall blonde motherly person appeared at the door.

"Excuse me, but we're lost and need to find our way to the school library and a Mr Giles, do you know the way please?"

The woman smiled, "off course" and gave Kendra the directions.

"Thank you, Miss?"

"Summers, and when you see Mr Giles, could you ask him to send Buffy home? Thanks"

Kendra walked away from the door, a pensive frown on her face.

"Miss Kendra, what appears to be wrong?" Teal'c asked.

"Buffy Summers, that is the name of the slayer who died and activated me"

Daniel shot a startled look up the drive, but didn't comment, just shifted his burden on his shoulders and followed the girl through the streets, Teal'c at his side.

* * *

This town, somewhere was the resistance group he needed to link up with, but where?

This place was too large to search on his own and he needed to be careful, the men of his new Command already thought him a little odd and watched him withy more then normal wariness. They knew something was off-kilter here, but they acted like they thought he was part of it, he wasn't off course, but he wanted to be.

These things killed thousands of Americans every year, and his oath, his word required him to protect his nation against all enemies, an oath he had not intention of breaking. If that meant assiting what was technically a group of vigilantes, so be it.

This town certainly had an active population, the sheer volume of graveyards, the size of the missing persons and obituary columns and the distinct tendency for most people to go home at sundown gave that away. Still, it didn't help him find the locals.

Or maybe it did. They would naturally congregate at the same places the demons were drawn too, and what kind of place would they love?

He glanced up, and saw a warehouse with a large sign saying bronze above the door.

He smiled; bingo.

* * *

He hated having to rent a car, but he wasn't stupid enough to bring his babe here, it had taken him long enough to restore the Mustang and the insurance rating was unbelievable, he wasn't brining it to a place like this. 

Not with this many kids around who would just love a ride in such a sweet car.

Not with this many demons around, and there want, take, have philosophy.

A man walked in, a distinct aura of command, his manner screaming leader, soldier and their eyes caught, instant acknowledgement. They were new here, but maybe, they were both here for the same reason. The man walked across, sitting down across him, slightly wary but not about him, about the crowds, and what may just be hiding in them.

"General Brent, Sunnydale armoury"

Nice, a General, kinda outranked me though, "Staff Sergeant West, Special Air Service..."


	11. Chapter 11

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

Eleven 

"Willow, I thought you took that damn thing down?" Buffy's exasperated comment was not the reply Gerard had been expecting, though judging by the oops look that immediately crossed Buffy's face, she at least was smart enough to note the illegality she had just admitted to, inadvertently.

"What," Cosmo asked, "take down as in, you maintain it, or take down as in hack?"

"I claim the fifth?" Willow replied, shrugging.

"That", Cooper replied, "answers that one"

"If you know about that site," Xander pointed out, "then it's a damned good assumption you know what's on the site"

"Of course," Cosmo commented, as Gerard carefully watched, and judged, "why do you think we're here? Something as mad as that we have to investigate"

"Ahh," Willow replied sagely, "newbie's. Let's break their cherries"

"Hey, wait a minute" Cosmo protested, "my cherry was broken years ago, just ask the ex's"

"So _not _ what she meant" Buffy snorted.

"There should be a rising in the eastern cemetery tonight," Giles commented, "a Miss Trachenberg"

"Coolies," Buffy commented, cops who at least know are always useful, hopefully this lot won't do a Sunnydale and stick their heads so far into the sand they come out in Australia

"We aren't exactly known for hiding from the truth," Gerard pointed out.

"I know," the assurance with which Buffy said that told Gerard very firmly that somebody had been doing some background checking of their own, and they would have to have done it before they found the site. Interesting, he mused.

"We still have that MIA team to find," Xander pointed out," a"nd with an unknown in the area, we really need somebody on homeplate to co-ordinate too"

"Well," Giles replied,"" I'll stay here off course"

Xander nodded, "Buffy and I will go break their cherries, Willow, get on the computer and see if you can dig up anything new on SG-1. Giles make a call to the Taskers, put them on alert"

"Of course; and Mr Bond?" Giles asked.

"Busy setting things up for us, give him an updated brief just in case but otherwise, leave him to it"

"Wait," Cooper asked, "what makes you think we are just going to follow you wherever you want? Now, in front of us you have said enough to have you arrested for about fifteen separate offences"

"Okay," Cosmo carefully responded, arms raised in a calming gesture, "we're all friends here, no need for the guns, so just put them away please"

"I think", Xander said carefully, "that until we have proven to you that vampires are real, its best we keep you in sight and under control"

"That's nuts," Cosmo replied, "vampires aren't real, there are no monsters under the bed, no bloodsucking fiends, nadda"

"Of course, then you won't mind coming with us?" Xander gestured with his bolter.

"Say, what kind of gun is that anyway?" Cooper asked," I've never seen one like it before"

Xander smiled, "that's because they don't exist, yet"

"Great, kid really is nuts," Cosmo commented to Gerard, "What do you think we're going to see, some poor smuck they've dug out of the grave?"

"I think," Gerard frowned, "that we are going to see a vampire"

Cosmo shot his boss an are you kidding?' look.

* * *

"This", Riley calmly said to the infuriated, but thankfully tied up and gagged Marshall," is a vampire. This particular one, Hostile Seventeen, is also known as Spike, or William the Bloody. The nickname was picked up due to his habit of crucifying his victims with railroad spikes" 

"Real nice person" Forrest added slowly, for emphasis.

The ten-thousand watt glare made him cringe for a moment, before it was turned back on Riley, who this time, managed somehow not to flinch.

"Graham, grab her crucifix" Riley said calmly, his finger twitching on his blaster as he tried to resist the urge to blast Walsh just to get away from that glare for a minute or two.

The glare was dialled up to roughly a million watts, and Riley shivered, not envying Graham as he was shot a look that said quite clearly, I know who you are, I know your name, I will find you and you will pay.

Understandably, Graham shot a pleading look to Riley, asking for somebody else to do this but Riley grimly nodded him to get on with it.

The crucifix was removed, and handed to Riley, Graham darting to the far side of the room as fast as he could, away from the enraged woman.

Riley just sighed, and pressed the small silver into the bound and gagged form of Spike. He stepped back, more then a little surprised, as black smoke billowed from the vampires forehead, flames spurting from the faint impression of the cross left behind on the monsters forehead.

"Who did you have this blessed by?" Riley blurted, as the vampire contorted in pain, "the Pope?"

He glanced across at Walsh, but she wasn't listening, her eyes were very firmly on Spike, or more particularly, his suddenly ridged forehead, the glowing yellow eyes, and the sudden appearance of fangs.

"Vampire," Riley commented, not unsympathetically.

The look he was shot said clearly Are you nuts? Hell, am I nuts?'

Riley almost smiled, she would be fine, that at least was one of the mildest responses he had had to deal with so far from people who suddenly found out that the monsters under the bed were real. At least five of the people he had been ordered to brief, including at least one General, were now in asylums because they could not accept the truth.

"This one we caught on our first day in Sunnydale, he and another vampire were attempting to leave the town at speed, she escaped, but this one we caught and sent back for analysis. Unfortunately, analysis wasn't what Walsh... sorry, your sister had in mind. Experimentation was however" Riley looked the Marshall Walsh directly in the eye, "behavioural modification experimentation"

The agent shot Graham and Forrest a warning look, then swiftly cut through the ropes binding the annoyed and pained vampire. Instantly, the vampire looked around at them as if his dream had come true, as if he was about to get a meal and some revenge all rolled up into one.

Riley watched warily, but did nothing as the vampire grabbed him and tried to bite.

"That," Forrest commented, "is one of the things your sister has been working on"

Riley snorted, and kicked the suddenly writhing vampire in the face, hard, knocking the monster out, then reaching for new ropes with which to tie the monster back up.

"He now has a chip in his head which in its early form, just prevents him from harming humans" Forrest shrugged, "you're a bright lady, I'm sure you can figure out how a woman working for a rogue division of a government agency might refine that"

"It's not the worst of it though," Riley commented, tugging unnecessarily hard on the ropes he was binding around the vampire, "she has been experimenting on us, her troops too"

Walsh's eyes widened with shock, her expression clearly saying are you serious, but Riley's return look was uncompromising, dead serious.

"A friend in Sunnydale spotted it; there is a microchip that has been placed without my knowing in my shoulder. Also, whilst the final lab report hasn't come back yet, the initial report confirmed that our bodies were loaded with a cocktail of drugs and chemicals, a cocktail we had not knowingly taken and which included a number of chemicals banned as unsafe"

Riley shook his head, "we didn't know you were at that house, but whilst we had to grab you and run we have tried to be as fair as we could under the circumstances and we hope that you will remember that"

Sighing, he reached across, and careful took the gag from the Marshall's mouth.


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you to all the reviewers:**

**rankukonalpha1**

**war90**

**Enedorii - **building up to that... slowly

**lennox rh - ** thank you for the comments... but i rather suspect the GEoM is a far bigger 'big punch' then a farseer or Horus...

**sithelfjen**

**wbh21c**

**Twelve**

Xander grimaced, he hated to use these, it wasn't as if he could replace them in a hurry, but…

With a click he activated the grenade in his palm, waiting the five seconds necessary for the ancient device to build up its charge of plasma, then, swiftly but surely he threw the small deadly egg.

It rose fifty feet into the air, flying across several trees before dropping right into the large group of vampires that had blocked off the eastern entrance to the cemetery. He hated ambushes, doubly so when he was trying to introduce some newbies to the nightlife.

The night flared, unnaturally bright for a moment, and when Xander opened his eyes once more, he noted that not only were the undead monsters dead, permanently this time, but the railings around the entrance had melted, and now formed some weird surrealistic ornament as they cooled into the tarmac.

For a moment, he wondered how the new Mayor, this 'Finch' was going to explain that away, then he shrugged, slinging his bolter across his shoulder and pulling his master-crafted plasma pistol from its holster.

Nothing like a sun burning in their bodies to dust vampires after all, even if it was a small sun that didn't last long.

Pistol spitting fire, Xander stood tall, firing over the shell-shocked heads of the Marshalls where they lay, still gazing, shuddering at the dust that was once the vampire called Trachenberg.

Besides him, Buffy crouched, bolter spitting fire in her hands, the force of the almighty weapons fire sending the heavy weapon slamming back into hers shoulder as every small rocket spat from the device. Anyone else would have a bruise in the morning Xander knew, from firing one of those without the usual armour across the shoulder, after all, it wasn't uncommon for normal humans to shatter their own bones if they used one of those improperly but Buffy, she might end up a bit sore, but the bruise would be gone before the morning was out, and it was morning now, the sun slowly starting to peep over the horizon.

Around the two warriors, a thick pile of dust was starting to settle, as vampire after vampire died, their ashes spinning in the light breeze and awkward, scared moves of the remaining monsters.

"Load!" Buffy shouted, her bolter clacking as it tried to load another round, but found none. Xander nodded, providing as much cover fire as he could with his pistol, waiting for the slayer to reload.

There was a muffled curse, and an annoyed shout of "out!"

Sensing weakness, the monsters surged forward; hoping to catch them before Buffy could find another weapon, but they would not be fast enough as Xander, barely pausing in his firing of the plasma pistol, slung his bolter off his shoulder one handed and passed it to the waiting slayer.

Buffy dropped her weapon, and began firing, short, controlled bursts, far more careful of her ammo. They had been caught off guard yes, but it would be mere minutes now before the vampires would start to burn in the sunlight and be forced to leave. Already, they were starting to look uncomfortable, and they were getting reckless in their attempts to destroy the warriors.

Once more, Buffy's phone rang urgently, stridently in her pocket and once more she was forced to ignore it, they didn't have time to talk now, even for a second, there were too many monsters pressing close, too many demons waiting in line for this first major attack on the Scooby's themselves since Halloween.

Then, finally it happened, the sun came over the horizon at last and the vampires turned, cursing, burning, racing for the waiting darkness of open sewer entrances, waiting vans and open doors on the near distance.

But neither Buffy nor Xander were willing to let them go that easily, their weapons carefully, accurately spitting fire until they clacked out of ammo for the last time.

Weary, but unbeaten, Buffy reached into her pocket for her mobile as Xander strode across to check upon the Marshall's, the near catatonic Cosmo and Cooper and the concussed Gerard.

* * *

Grimacing, Daniel rose from the floor, pushing the heavy plain blanket off his body, awoken by the strident, loud ringing of the phone. He glanced across at his team-mates, nodding gratefully as Teal'c, still very much awake and standing sentinel nodded once, reassuringly. 

They would be okay, their treatment might not have been anywhere near Frasier's standards, but it would keep them alive long enough for the formidable doctor to arrive.

He glanced across, shamelessly listening into the conversation as the 'Watcher', this Rupert Giles picked up the phone.

"Buffy, where the hell have you been I've been trying to contact you all night," Giles angrily asked, his eyes gazing across at the bloody and beaten forms of Daniels friends, and he noted and assessing and worried look in the older gentlemen's eyes.

"Good Lord…" he breathed, aghast, "are you two alright?"

"Of course yes," the man grimaced, and Daniel walked up, worried now, not hiding the fact that he was listening in, sounded like their had been a fight "but I am afraid that I will have to send Willow for some medical supplies, our new arrivals used most of what I had to hand"

Definitely had been a fight, and a bad one at that by the sounds of it.

The phone went down; then swiftly came back up, the watcher dialling out straight away, "are you busy?"

"Restfield cemetery, needs a clean up and fast, Buffy, Xander and the Marshall's got ambushed by about sixty vamps, there's dust and ammo everywhere"

"Yes, they're all alive, but they are coming straight back in, not waiting for the clean up. Yes, thank you Boris"

"Sixty vampires? How could they withstand sixty vampires?" the Jamacan 'Slayer' said, striding forward.

Daniel nodded, agreeing, from what he had seen and felt they were dangerous creatures, stronger then Jaffa certainly, but maybe a bit more stupid, something he had never thought he would actually be able to say and mean considering what most Jaffa were like.

"Team-work and superior firepower, still it was an ambush and they used all their ammo" Daniel felt a shiver as the British man held his gaze for a moment, "I'm afraid we have more wounded coming in"

* * *

_"Holy Shit!" _

"Definitely," the second twin agreed, his eyes wide as he gazed across the scene of the battle they had witnessed, "these guys must have been the ones who sent that message"

"I make it 36 kills..." the first noted, "and at least 15 of those that fled were wounded… and only two of them were actually firing, the other three, way out of it"

"Well," the second commented, "I'm in. If they can do that much damage, I am very in"

"Yea, I'll buy that" second shrugged, "come on, we'd best go before some cop shows up, or maybe a cleanup crew"

In pace, and wary, not bothering to hide the military training in their movements and attitudes, the two jogged from the area.

* * *

"Who were they?" 

"Don't know," West shrugged, "but if I was to guess, American, definitely military, almost certainly from an elite unit"

"Guess my arse," the General replied, grunting, "You've been 'in' too long for that to really be a simple guess. Maybe you would like to 'guess' on which branch too?"

"At a guess, rangers" West shrugged, "but the lady on the nest roof-top looks to be Navy, spent a lot of time at sea too. The two Gentlemen with her however are Seals"

Startled, Brent glanced across at the nearest buildings, "what lady? Seals? Where"

West just smiled, and turned his gaze back to the battle site.


	13. Chapter 13

**Thirteen**

"Slayer?" Xander winced at the intense glare Buffy was sending the defiant Jamaican, "news flash, 'unto each generation there shall be a chosen _one_' and that one is me, at least until I die"

"Good Lord," Xnader made a mental bet and glanced up towards the Englishmen, he was unsurprised to see him cleaning his glasses again, "Buffy, you _did_ die"

He felt a click in the back of his mind, then nodded once "Halloween, of course, you died, only for a few minutes but you did die"

"You died?" Kendra asked, warily.

"Yes, but I got better"

"This is not a matter for flippancy Buffy, you died!" Giles shrugged, "obviously you died long enough for the slayer essence to pass onto the next candidate, Miss Kendra here"

"Cool, another girl inside the kick-arse club, doubt there are going to be too many in the soldiers that are on their way"

"Probably not," Xander acknowledged, "it isn't easy for women to get into the Special Forces groups after all, they're allowed into many nowadays, but still…"

"Wait, Soldiers?" Kendra asked, stepping backwards, "does the military know about you?"

"Well, yes, they certainly do now" Giles said, his eyes haunted, as he stared into apparent nothingness, "unfortunately, an incident at Halloween caused the scales to shift, a major force for good joined us and naturally evil has moved to attempt to redress the balance. In order to merely hold the line, we need more bodies then we currently have and that means recruiting and preparing for what is likely to be an all out war. I'm afraid the battlelines are already being drawn and if tonight is anything to go by, the war is starting in earnest"

"And if we fail," Willow commented, solemnly, "then its game over for humanity. We have to hold, we have to force the scales back into balance"

"Do you not want to win?" Gerard asked, finally taking some interest in the conversation, his eyes haunted, but increasingly determined and strong.

"Simply speaking, no," Giles grimaced, "I know many don't and won't understand this, but if evil wins, it's chaos, murder, mayhem… I'm sure the result of that is obvious to all of you, but if good wins…"

"Stagnation, no change, just peace, love hope and dope," Xander added sarcastically, "the mind that possessed me at Halloween, that of a God Emperor of another dimension, hates but understands the truth of the situation. Humanity, us, we are creatures of balance.

In order to live and thrive, we need not just the peace and the hope, but the chaos and mayhem. Hope is what keeps us going but chaos is what enables us to adapt to change. We need to live in that delicate balance or we are lost"

Kendra nodded, slowly, hesitantly, "is the evil trying to restore the balance or destroy it?"

"Destroy it," Buffy said, stepping forward towards Kendra but still maintaining a subordinate position behind Xander, "the events of Halloween gave them to excuse and they have every intention of taking it"

Xander nodded, he had spotted Buffy's instinctive move and was already dropping into the file of changes wrought by that fateful day, "it's not quite as simple as that though. The hordes are what we have to face and destroy but the masters, the first circle demons and worse, they want the chaos and bloodshed that is to come, but they also know the truth and whilst they will make the game last as long as they can, at some point, if they want games in the future, they know the balance will have to be restored"

Xander sighed wearily, sitting down as a dead, grimly contemplative silence filled the room. It was Kendra who eventually broke it.

"The next years are going to be hell are they not?"

"Yes, I am afraid they are going to be very much so. Whilst we will try to keep this out of the open, I am afraid it's entirely possible, even probable that that will quickly become impossible"

"This will be ground zero, will it not?"

"Yes," he shrugged, "but not the only one, there are signs that another inbound that the masters are using will be coming through another gateway, somehow linked to SG-1. We are still gathering Intel on that one, but it looks like a fight against technology not magic and is therefore the primary domain of other champions and secondary to us"

"Other champions, you mean this SG-1?" Gerard asked.

"Yes," Xander shrugged, "they show all the signs… but as they are faking sleep, I guess they know that"

Xander chuckled as Daniel sheepishly sat up, pushing the tattered blanket off his body. Teal'c just nodded, and moved across to check his teammates one more time, he had to respect a man who treated being found out eavesdropping as water of a ducks back.

"What makes you say that? I mean, about us being champions?"

"You have all the standard signs," Xander shrugged, smiling slightly at the curious archaeologist, "from what I have read, you attract trouble more then any other unit; can't stay dead and…"

Xander paused, this was significant, "you have a brain box, a warrior, a heart, a redemptionist, and a wise man do you not?"

Daniel gazed, shocked and disturbed at Xander, and it didn't take him to spot that even Teal'c looked disturbed. Then again, so did most of his crew, so he couldn't say much.

"Your brainbox is Carter, ours Willow. I doubt you will have any difficulty in guessing the warrior, but I will say O'Neill anyway, ours is… or perhaps was Buffy. Heart is you, and quite frankly it took me all of two seconds to peg you as the soul, the moral compass of your group, I used to be ours, I might be warrior now but we will see. Teal'c is looking for his redemption, Angel just…" Xander paused, an odd look on his face, one that said he knew more then he was telling, "Left for Los Angeles and is already building up his own band. Our wise man would be Giles, I don't know who yours would be but you will have one"

"General Hammond," Daniel said, his eyes distant, maybe a little awed and shocked.

"We all walk the path of the champion here and though other may walk alongside us for a while, the core five will always be there, though not always unchangingly"

A quiet contemplative silence filled the room once more, and this time Xander let himself be lost in it too.

The silence remained for thirty minutes before it was disturbed, and Xander began barking instructions as Daniel passed on the phone message that a Doctor was just ten minutes out, on her way by helicopter.


	14. Chapter 14

**Fourteen**

She didn't want to believe it, she couldn't, no, she wouldn't believe it.

This could not be true, her sister, whom she had played with as a child, shared every secret, even that of her disastrous first step into womanhood, could not possibly be the treasonous bitch these… _soldiers_ were painting her to be.

She knew her sister, she was trustworthy, could keep her mouth shut, had a solid moral compass and a good, intelligent mind, she had always been interested in the whys and wherefores of life…

And yet…

And yet, there was this pit deep inside her that believed; that knew she could do this and worse. A treacherous pit that threw up forgotten images of the 'accidents' that afflicted anyone who had bullied her as a child, accidents she knew weren't accidentally, but despite her curiosity she had never been able to quite figure out what had actually happened. Maybe she hadn't wanted to know.

There were other things too, her sister dissecting a rat in lab class, not caring as it writhed weakly in her hands, not quite dead despite the assurances of the now sickly looking teacher, that they had all died days ago, killed just for the class.

There was the way she had looked at that dreadful body, the murder she and her sister had found, the one that had started her move towards police work in the first place. It wasn't disgusted, it wasn't pitiful, it wasn't the old favourite, nauseated but unable to turn away, it was an analytical curiosity, as if she had no trouble seeing the dead lady and the shattered body of her child not as human beings, but as things to be dissected and studied.

She didn't want to believe, she didn't want to have to acknowledge that a bloodline that had spawned cops, doctors and nurses had finally produced its first criminal, its first unfeeling, abusing psychopath.

Oh yes, she didn't want to believe, but still, she believed and it hurt, a black pit of hopeless despair, disgust and betrayal that sapped and dragged at every fibre of her being.

She didn't want to have to have a member of her family arrested and convicted, up till now the line had been free of that taint, but she may have to. Maybe she could have Gerard do it for her?

No.

This was family, if one of her own had to be brought in, and then it should be her. It was her sister, her responsibility. It would be hard, but she knew her duty to her family, the law and to the people she had chosen to protect from the scum that infested her country.

She would have to investigate her sister herself, gather all the evidence that would no doubt put her sister and perhaps many others into the chair.

She would be the one to walk up to her sister, place those cuffs on her and say the words which would forever mark the woman as a criminal, and she would have to do it knowing that there was constitutional violations and security issues crowding the work she did at every level.

She would have to do it right, for her sister, for her duty and for family honour, her soul, her conscience would accept no less.

* * *

"Excuse me, Mr Tasker?" warily, but with the assurance that came from Command and of battles won and lost, "Captain Eva, US Navy. I believe you are an acquaintance of Mr Harris? I and my two comrades here received a recruitment pitch that we believe came from your associate" 

She held his gaze unflinchingly as he blatantly assessed her, and her two Seal friends, even as she carried out her own assessment, a task that was far easier up close that the distance observations she had had to carry out up until now. This man was strong, a warrior she didn't doubt, but there was an edge of good-natured humour in him, that was a rare and valuable sign. It said that whilst he might work in the dark, he had managed to keep the dark out of his soul, a man who could do that, well she had little doubt that working with him might be harder then anything else she had done, but she knew straight away that he would stand with her every step of the way if he considered her an ally and a friend.

"I believe the message concerned vampires sir," bold, but it would get the point across, it might be morning now, she had deliberately chosen to stand in the sunlight after all, a fact she knew Mr Tasker could not have failed to notice, but there were other things that moved around during the day that might be hostile to them, some of them were even human, if only in theory.

Eyebrow raised, the big man stepped aside, a careful non-invitation into the house, and she stepped forward, a shudder of fear and anticipation settling lead like in her stomach as she finally committed herself to the fight.

* * *

"He fully intends to build up an army," West mused. 

"This town alones needs at least a regiment, even as 'special' as some of his group appears to be. I would dread to think what covering the whole world against the night would require" General Brent grimaced, then shrugged, slamming back a shot of scotch, enjoying the sensation as the alcohol burned its way to his gut.

"There special nature has to be considered; whilst there loyalties appear clear on the surface, we don't truly know where there allegiances lie. If they intend to gather this army together then corrupt it, taking it into the darkness…"

Brent sighed, pouring himself and the SAS Sergeant each another shot, "it has to be considered. If I had found out about them before Halloween, I would have had fewer doubts but they shifted then, there personality profiles shifted too much. What they were before can not be trusted as an indicator of what they are now"

"They seem to stand in the light" West pointed out, carefully nursing his drink.

"That they do, but they have been affected, shifted, by magic. Magic of chaos too, not the rare white stuff"

"I suppose then," West shrugged, "the question comes down to, what do our hearts say? Do we trust and get ourselves involved, or do we not?"

Brent frowned, "I am a General, and one of the requirements of the role is that you plan for everything. Personally, my heart says yes. My mind says, learn, watch and make plans, just in case"

West nodded, "I have had to kill a supposed ally on more then one occasion, it's a hazard of black operations too, and so… I agree"

"We reveal ourselves then, join in the fight," Brent nodded, slamming back another shot.

"And," West grinned, "we plan to kill the bastards, just in case"

Brent nodded, sloshing more scotch into both their glasses.

"To fighting the good fight, whatever it takes" he suggested.

West nodded, his eyes firmly on Brent's, "whatever its takes"

Nodding at each other, they completed the toast.


	15. Chapter 15

**Fifteen**

Bond was in a surprisingly good mood, setting up a company with provisions for lots of covert types connections was surprisingly challenging, and best still, it was an entirely different type of challenge to what he was used too. It appeared the old saw about a change being as good as a rest actually worked; normally he would be trying to destroy the sort of company he was setting up, but not this time.

Finding people to run the company wasn't difficult, he had after all, had quite a few years to make friends and influence people and well, whilst he had not noticed the signs in his early years, it had been merely six months after the incident with Doctor No that he had met and killed his first vampire and since then he had gotten very good at spotting those who knew and were burying their heads in the sands, who knew and didn't know what to do, and who knew and were trying to do something. He also had a very good idea about those that didn't know but unsurprisingly, the darker, blacker and less 'official' your work, the more likely it seemed that you knew of the darkness.

It was particularly useful little fact in this particular case because it was those people he wanted, needed. People who knew, people who had useful skills, and perhaps most importantly, who knew how to keep their mouths shut.

Loyalty was also an issue, but frankly, with these types of people, you always had to earn that, otherwise they would do the work but everything would get reported back to their home governments, there would be interference and attempts by the various governments to seize control…

And of course, half of their people would vanish into the woodwork at any sign that a different government controlled the fight against the darkness, the other half would try and undermine whichever government had control, their operatives would be banned from entering nations or receive little to no co-operation…

No, he would have to make sure that group remained apolitical, which placed some extreme constraints on the individuals he could recruit.

He would also have to make sure of assistance from the various governments, he knew the kids wouldn't like that so much, afraid as they were of any government gaining control over slayers or witches, but merely being acknowledged as a 'friendly' organisation would make any operations they would have to carry out within that nation a hell of a lot easier, doubly so if the brown and sticky stuff hit the fan.

Luckily, he didn't have to worry so much about recruiting for the operational teams, their 'subtle' little message would deal with that, no he just had to arrange the support staff, the admin, the company heads and those that would ensure their cover.

Childs play, really.

It was challenges like this that had pushed him into Her Majesty's Secret Service after the end of the Second World War, but frankly the challenge had wilted; it was nowhere near as interesting as it used to be. This at least was a challenge.

Of course, at some point he would have to deal with some awkward questions, doubly so when they figured out he actually appeared younger then he did just a scant few years ago, but still, he would face that when it happened

It would be so much easier if he could wave a sword around and say he was of the McClouds but frankly, Conner would kill him again for the presumption, and Duncan, well Duncan would give him a 'you just shot my puppy' look and make him feel like a right heel.

Besides, he wasn't part of that brigade and he had little doubt that Xander would spot the lie and wonder about it.

Still, until then, well…

He had a lot of work to do.

* * *

"Recruits are starting to pour in," Giles commented quietly to Xander, as they gazed across at the very efficient and bossy Doctor who had swept in and taken over the treatment of the SG team, "A Naval Captain and two Seals have contacted the Taskers, Riley reports that a number of Rangers tagged for the Initiative have contacted him, asking if it was he who had arranged the message… He's worried about how they knew to contact him, but he has taken their details and will pass them along next time he joins us" 

"That's good," Xander nodded, then jerked hiss head towards Giles office, and the uniformed group huddled within.

"Ah yes," Giles grinned, "Five Royal Marine Commandoes, one SAS officer and the new CO of Sunnydale Armoury"

Xander choked, "the _who?_"

"I was more then a little surprised myself, but he appears genuine," Giles shrugged, "he and the SAS Sergeant appear to be a team, though considering their different nations and branches I would love to know how that happened"

"Okay, anyone other then Yanks and Brits?"

"Not yet," Giles admitted, "but it might take the non-English speakers more time to filter in. As for Australians, Canadians and the other English speakers…"

"Okay," Xander nodded, "this is only early days anyway. Any word from Bond?"

"He has secured the old CRD place for our use and is arranging funding to have the place brought up to scratch. That will however cost a fair wedge of cash and take quite some time"

"That's fine," Xander grinned, "Ive been on the phone with SG-1's CO, it seems the SGC maintains a slush fund of a few billion keep just to pay for technologies and the like"

"Really?" Giles raised an eyebrow, intrigued, "do we have anything ready we can give them? I have little doubt the extra cashflow could be useful, assuming that the source of the technology can be masked"

"Hammond is willing and eager," Xander shrugged, "but we have to watch for the NID, they are all over the SGC"

"So," Giles shrugged, "it has to be simple, mass producible with modern technology levels and something that the NID wont try to control, but will allow to slip into general usage"

Xander nodded, then grinned, "I think I had best have a word with Willow, I may know just the thing…"


	16. Chapter 16

**Sixteen**

Hammond didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he really didn't.

Of course, Walter had spotted this straight away, and said 'SG-1 again?' and handed him a coffee liberally laced with rum and a dozen antacids. The part which made it worse was simple; Walter was, as always, right.

It _was_ SG-1 again.

Of course, he should have known that the words 'simple assignment' when applied to SG-1 meant… well, simply put, he should know better by now then to describe any assignment given to them as simple.

Invade a Goa'uld controlled world? No problem, they would be back with nary a scratch in time for tea.

World about to be destroyed? Make sure you put the kettle on before they left, they would want a hot one when they got back.

'Simple' assignment?

Warn Frasier in advance, have extra troops deployed around the top of the mountain ready for the inevitable foothold or virus, oh yes, and make sure the base self-destruct was working.

Oh, just go to Sunnydale, found out why some nutjobs have posted a letter to everyone in Special Forces which seems to relate to the Goa'uld…

Should have been a simple assignment, for anyone else it would have been.

Simple assignment for SG-1 naturally involved a phone from President Ryan asking why he had deployed teams to the mouth of hell and didn't he read page two of the Red Deployments book? The page that stated quite clearly that Sunnydale was off limits to all 'restricted' operations personnel.

Then, have SG-1 go missing… of course, for them, a simple mission always means missing at some point, the base betting pool did after all revolve around which scheduled check-in they would end up missing by.

Then, have a phone call from Daniel asking for the Doc, seems the Colonel and Carter had gotten themselves severely injured which did make a change he supposed, but it didn't change the fact that half of his best team was once more bound for the infirmary… and there own private rooms, which it had to be said, Jack saw far more of then he did his own office.

Then, Walter comes up and oh so causally mentions that somebody seems to be running an unauthorised remote access on the base computers from the Los Angeles area and did he think it involved SG-1 at all?

Stupid question really.

And now there was this… _being_ on the phone speaking some incomprehensible dialect of English, claiming to have weapons tech they were willing to sell.

Advanced stuff, the sort their allies refused to give them.

How in the hells name did Californians, and from the sounds of it, some bleached blonde who had far too much LSD back in the day, manage to get their hands on advanced technology?

For that matter, how the hell did she get his office phone number?

"What else could go wrong?"

Hammond froze, eyes wide, he didn't really just say that did he?

Now with SG-1 on one of _those_ missions?

"Sir," he groaned as Walter walked in carefully, "the techs just kicked two more unauthorised links off the computers. We only got partial IDs, an army unit with India-November-India as partial unit designation and an 'Omega'"

Hammond groaned, he must really have done something terrible in a past life to deserve SG-1. Destroyed an entire universe, perhaps?

* * *

Buffy shrugged, turning to Teal'c as she dropped the phone back into its bracket, "your Hammond, he sounded a bit… odd. Almost sounded as if he was crying," she frowned, "muttering something about having been a bad boy in a previous life as well" 

A muffled snort made the Slayer glance across to Giles, who very carefully wasn't looking in her direction and had a fixed look on his face.

"Trust me…" Buffy gazed worried, as with obvious effort he forced the words out, "I can entirely sympathise with what he's feeling"

Buffy frowned, and then glanced at Teal'c, asking for assistance. The Jaffas response was a simple shrug which still somehow managed to convey the idea that he wasn't going to touch that one, not even with a ten foot barge-pole.

Deciding that was probably the best thing to do, Buffy shrugged the strange behaviour of Giles and the General off.

"So, do you think he'll bite?"

"If you mean, do you think Hammond will purchase the technology off you, then I believe so. Acquiring new technologies is a major part of the Commands mandate and so far, we have had few opportunities to acquire actual weapons technology for earth, especially not technology which can be mass produced at Earths current level of development"

Buffy shrugged, "that was the whole point of the technology we selected, that it _could_ be mass produced at current tech-levels and better yet, be functional but not powerful enough to give the owner an overwhelming advantage"

"Indeed, this 'las' technology of yours should prove most useful"

Buffy grinned, wryly, "I sure hope so, a few million worth of 'nice' would be very useful right now"

* * *

"Vampires are real," Gerard shook his head, "I never ever seriously thought I would find myself saying that and meaning it" 

"You and me both boss," Cosmo shook his head, still more then a little shocked, "you and me both"

Gerard nodded, taking a swift pull from the bottle in his hand, "question is, what do we do now?"

"Well," Cooper commented, her voice slightly slurred, "I don't think we could arrest vampires that's for sure"

Cosmo snorted, "You would have a Vampire Rights Group on your arse in minutes if you tried. Never mind that one doesn't exist, it soon would… _oh, they're only animals, doing what's natural"_ Cosmo continued in a high pitched, whining voice.

"If we can't touch the vampires, then we can't touch the vigilantes that are dealing with them," Gerard frowned, "and that rankles. We're cops, it our duty to put all lawbreakers behind bars and this group and no doubt, hundreds of others are certainly vigilantes"

"I never thought I would say this," Cosmo shook his head as he grabbed a fresh bottle out of the small cooler bag at their feet, "but perhaps these things are below the reach of the law"

Gerard started, and angry expression on his face, his manner just screaming lecture mood, but he slumped before he could start, his expression weary, almost defeated, "perhaps"

"Question is, now we know, can we turn our backs?" Cooper asked, her seriousness coming through despite the growing pile of empties at her feet.

There was a quiet, contemplative silence for a while, then quietly and wearily, Gerard sighed, "no"

Cosmo nodded, "no"

Cooper smiled, "then ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we have just condemned ourselves to living very interesting lives"

Gerard cracked a smile, and shook hi head, reaching for another bottle.


	17. Chapter 17

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Seventeen**

"My key, I want my key. If little Miss Goddess doesn't get her key little Miss Glory is going to GET CRANKY!" the last was shouted and with some considerable force into the face of the scabby minion in front of her, then, with cloying sweetness, the Lady in the red dress, whose appearance was beautiful, enticing yet somehow… off, scary, continued, "and you do not want Glory to become cranky do you?"

The minion shook his head, his face a peculiar mixture of fear and awe.

"Then, where is my KEY?" the Lady stormed around the plush, obviously expensively decorated room which fulfilled every cliché about the bedroom of a single, rich and mid-twenties female, being both expensively, classily yet very femininely decorated. It was clear no man had been allowed any say in how this room was made.

"I sense the key across half the world, its power, its sheer beautiful power drags me from the delightful pleasure of massacring those spineless monks and yet as soon as I get to this miserable, worthless town it vanishes from my senses. Somebody is playing with me, dragging me here… I am a god, I am not to be played with and when I figure out who is manipulating me…"

"No one could manipulate you, your most Glorious Glorificusness"

"Shut up scab," the Lady continued, shucking off her sleek red dress as she stepped from the room, making the eyes of the scab bulge out appreciatively, worshipfully, "this God wants a bath, and when she comes out, there had better be a key waiting for her"

"Of course, your magnificent all-knowingness," the scab shouted, and then swiftly fled the room, holding the image of his beautiful _naked _Queen in his mind as he went to pass on the gods orders.

* * *

She grimaced, resisting the urge to reach once more for her headache pills. 

She had a problem, despite her big words it would take more then just her to take down an entire rogue agency of the government. Sure she could bring in a few people she trusted, but if they really were rogue, which they appeared to be, then they would most likely have little issue arranging a few deaths.

Which meant she had two options, she make herself untouchable, which was difficult and quite frankly, that kind of protection tended to be very brief. Or she could gather a few friends, make themselves to numerous to take down without being noticed and remarked upon.

The second option was easier perhaps, but opened them up to being infiltrated by the very arseholes they were attempting to destroy. Yet, she already had at least one outside group willing to work with her, the head soldiers of that Initiative Project, that wasn't enough though; she would have to bring in a few investigators she trusted too. Gerard would be best of course, but she knew something odd was going on with Gerard right now, and the initiative soldiers weren't telling her what. They knew, that much she could tell, so how much could she really trust them?

She was in a difficult position, that was certain, and whatever happened, this was an investigation where absolutely every T would have to be crosses and every I doted despite how much that would hamstring them against rogues who obviously would not obey every law.

Of course, she could start the investigation unofficial… but at some point if she meant to bring them before the law, it would have to become official, and that too would leave them open to interference.

The decisions were difficult, they always were when dealing with rogues, that she had learnt the last time, but then, decision such as these were why she was Chief Marshall and not a deputy.

Either way, she need to talk to Gerard, she wanted her best in on this.

* * *

Hammond grinned, normally he hated being played, but in this case he had figured it out and was quite happy with the situation thank you. 

Being played bad, being used to play someone else worse… unless of course, that someone was the NID. In which case, so long as those… excretable individuals ended up with eggs on their faces he was quite happy being used thank you.

In this case, the sheer joy factor of having the NID _backing _him for once…

They might not like the fact that not being told where the technology came from was part of the deal, but they were very happy that a technology was coming that was supposedly immediately useable. Of course, he had little doubt they were going to try to discover exactly _where _it came from, but considering O'Neill had been quite adamant that the group in question knew of the NID and didn't particularly like them, well then he could guess that the NID would learn exactly what they were allowed too, and not one iota more.

It was fun, watching the NID being played for once.

They had approved his paying for the technology, a cool $50 Million for lasgun and laspistol schematics, designs for production facilities and two working examples of each with an option kept open for further deals in the future.

They really had no idea, they fell exactly for the cheap mass producible and not too advanced line and hadn't really though about it…

A rifle that could be rearmed just by leaving it in the sunlight for a few hours? That was a major cost saving right there, less need to shift extra ammunition about. Of course, the powerpaks themselves would be the expensive part at first, but the NID hadn't thought about those and to run such a weapon, they would have to represent a quantum leap in battery technologies.

The fact that they had managed to slip that past the NID was worth $50 million all on its own.

Then, once that had the basics figured out and in mass production, it would make a fine basis to build other systems out of. Mainly applications used lasers nowadays, the technological advantage of having a working lasweapon would increase their knowledge of laser technology, a benefit that would filter through to every application that used the technology, cutters, etchers, pointers… and the SGC would control the patents, through dummy corporations of course, but it was the SGC that would reap the benefits.

And that was _before _they started work on enlarging the weaponry. The as yet unidentified group had let slip in O'Neill's hearing that las _cannon _technology was possible as well as larger ship to ship weaponry.

Ship-to-ship weaponry that Earth could produce…

It was the Holy Grail of the SGC, it looked like coming true and the NID had dropped the ball on it, big time.

He really _really _doubted that his day could get any better.

"Sir,"

Ah, Walter, must be wondering why he had a Cheshire cat grin on his face…

"O'Neill's left a message, says you might want to call this number and ask for a Marshall Walsh…"

* * *

Bond smiled, a warm look filling his eyes, displacing the wariness and plain weariness placed there by his many years of secret service for just a moment. 

Those kids, they sure knew how to make his job easier. That money would make all the difference, and at the same time, they seem to be managing to snub one of the bastard children of the US Government.

If they were his children, then he had little doubt he would be crying proud tears right now, as it was, his little… deal may have meant he couldn't have children of his own, but damn, if they kept that up he might be tempted to claim them as his own anyway. He already knew half of them would be glad of having a parent who was willing to actually _be _a parent after all.

Course, that would make them somewhat more vulnerable to his enemies, but still, he had a feeling they could handle that.

Heh, he really should stop getting ahead of himself, he still had to get permission from his sponsor of sorts before he left the Crowns service and entered there's.

And that he knew was going to be an interesting experience… especially if he managed to displease her.


	18. Chapter 18

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Eighteen**

Bond blinked, caught a little by surprise, "you're placing this rather fledging organisation in to direct conflict with the NID?"

Xander shook his head, somewhat sheepishly, "Nobody intended for that to happen, but Marshall Walsh put a call out through Riley Finn that she wanted the assistance of anyone who had been wronged by the NID and SG-1 responded… Gerard she contacted directly, he is her best agent after all and well, somebody let slip that Willow had managed a brief look past the NIDs firewalls, long enough to know she didn't want to send the recruit email to them but still, that makes her and the information she grabbed very valuable to Marshall Walsh…"

Bond actually grinned, "happens that way sometimes, believe me, I know. Anyway, let her know if she finds any NID bases she wants a covert look see at…"

Xander nodded, "I will let her know"

Bond shrugged, "let's just say, I have a beef with one or two people who fled my grasp and started working for the NID"

"I don't want this organisation drawn into a vendetta," Xander warned.

"I know," Bond shrugged, reaching down a pulling a sheaf of files from within his jacket, "and I will not seek them out unless ordered"

Xander nodded, "Good enough B-man. So how's the organisation going?"

"B-man?" Bond rolled his eyes, "That isn't going to annoy me like it does Giles you know. I have certainly been called far worse"

"Yes," Xander chuckled, "like 'kill him!' and 'don't let him get away!' both far worse names…"

Bond let loose a startled laugh, "Yes, indeed. Still, I came down to confirm that the deposit of 10million Dollars has been received from the SGC, so far Q has only picked up twenty five tracers, fifteen of which he thinks are NID models, six are CIA, 3 are FBI and 1…" Bond frowned, "I would love to know what use Fish and Game has for _that _kind of tracer"

Xander blinked, then laughed, "He's having you on with that one. Trust me on this; he's been watching far too much TV recently"

Bond blinked, then smiled, "well, he is 'officially' retired, so I suppose he has had the time…"

Xander laughed, "Planning on bringing him out of retirement?"

Bond shook his head, "he's happy to help on the occasional job so long as only I know how to contact him, but he's earned his retirement"

"Fair enough," Xander nodded, "soon as he has cleared all the tracers, we'll start work on shifting the weapons to the SGC. I plan on sending SG-1 back with them but with a… discreet escort at all stages"

Bond nodded, his expression thoughtful, "I can get into the mountain with no issues if you think the NID might try an intercept there, it would not be the first time"

Xander shook his head, "I'm not going to ask. Still, they have been unusually co-operative. I would like to think they had dropped the ball, but… If you think you can get in and out undetected, then it would be a good idea"

Bond nodded, then reached down, passing another of the reports to Xander, "okay, basic structure for the company. Obviously, we will need to get R&D set up first, with the old CRD facilities here in Sunnydale as the initial base, but we will need to add marketing, legal and manufacturing pretty fast. For that, I would need to know where you intend to base the company and I would suggest against Sunnydale"

Xander frowned, "why?"

Bond glanced up at Xander, "because we will be creating a lot of jobs, jobs attract people and I don't think you want to be increasing the population of Sunnydale any more then is necessary"

Xander grimaced, "more people attracted here, the more people the monsters can kill… right, got it"

"The question is, what nation do you wish to make your primary base of operations?"

Xander blinked, then raised an eyebrow, "okay, I assume you have a reason for asking that particular question"

"Yes," Bond replied frankly, "initially we may only be protecting Sunnydale against the dark but if we can hold here, I have little doubt we will eventually expand to cover more and more of the world. Whilst being America based as I have little doubt you intended will be helpful in some areas, it will get us automatically blocked in others. We need somewhere more neutral"

"England?"

"No," Bond grimaced, "we have picked up far too much of a reputation for backing Americas interests. Whilst British is still preferable to American in many areas, it's not by much"

Xander shook his head, "I think you are planning too far ahead right now. We have a pretty good idea there are a few demon armies hiding out, particularly in Africa, but there is only one hellmouth outside of the 'Western' world and that is the _least _active of the group"

He grimaced, "unfortunately, that's also in Africa. Fortunately, it's well protected… but still, if we are thinking long term, then at some point, we will have to make a move to assist in the protection of that one too"

Bond nodded, "that erases my main worry actually"

"So," Xander said, "we base in America, preferably somewhere close by, perhaps LA, but with the number of recruits coming in from Britain I suggest if we manage to get this hellmouth secured, we make the London one our next priority, despite the fact that Cleveland is the next most active. Of course, the old Council of Watchers built their HQ right on top of the damned thing so those 'delightful individuals' may have to be dealt with"

Bond shook his head, "why would anyone build their headquarters on top of a hellmouth?"

"Probably the same reason I would rather we had a facility here instead of this High School. It means somebody is always on the hellmouth who knows what it is and how to guard it"

"Yes," Bond frowned, "but it would increase your chances of corruption by the very forces you are attempting to guard against, working over such a font of evil all the time"

Startled, Xanders eyebrows rose, "your right. That may even be partially responsible for the current attitudes of the Council. If it's true though, then it should be easy to test. We find the watchers who aren't on a hellmouth or other mystical convergence…"

Bond nodded, "and compare them to those who have been on such a place for several years. Not conclusive perhaps, but certainly indicative"

"That would have to be added to the Long-term to do list though; we need to return to more immediate concerns"

"Indeed," Bond concurred, "I have purchased the CRD facility and as soon as the deposit is cleared by Q I will have work started on its refit. Unfortunately, circumstances dictate that we can not wait until the refit is complete before we move in, so it will have to be a more expensive rolling refit. That's okay, we can cover that no problems. The issue is the contractors; they are going to have to be very carefully selected just to make sure they aren't going to be blabbing about any extras to the first reporter or demon that comes along"

"Contractors who 'know' would be helpful there"

"Indeed, but no sane contractor is going to advertise that they know about demons" Bond replied.

Xander smiled, "unless they did it in areas where only people who believe are likely to go anyway"

The former British Spy blinked, and then smiled, "such places exist?"

"Indeed, I can have Willow check her bookmarks for appropriate sites for you but there are also demons bars that can be checked, most of which are unsafe but there are a few that pride themselves on neutrality and I have heard rumours of at least one that only caters to the white-hat brigades"

Bond nodded, "that would be a helpful start. Next, we need to discuss safe accommodations for personnel and procedures…"


	19. Chapter 19

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Nineteen**

"Do you have any idea what it took to get a satellite permanently retasked to cover a small town in Southern California?" Hammond asked, more then a little aghast.

"No," O'Neill commented slowly, one hand rising as if to scratch his face. O'Neill killed that thought, as itchy as the damn bandages were they were necessary… if only to get a certain Napoleonic power-monger off his back, "but I bet it was real fun"

"Not as much fun as trying to get access rights assigned to a civilian… well," Hammond continued, "let's be blunt shall we, _vigilante _"

"That's a little harsh," Daniel commented, "accurate, but harsh"

"See," O'Neill commented, "I think you've missed the point. Yes, the hellmouth needs to be watched, yes, we _really _want to have a strategic bomber moved into the area, perhaps reassign a few ICBMs in case things go south and yes, at the moment the local group that is in place is the best to deal with the existing threat but frankly, they are sitting on what is supposed to be an unwilling of evil"

"That's not how Carter described it," Hammond replied pensively.

"Let me guess… weakening in dimensional barriers, spill-over off physical constants from another universe?"

Hammond nodded, "all true… as far as it goes. We are talking about a dimension where the champions failed. We are talking about a dimension that the forces of darkness rule and we are talking about a corrupting influence"

The Generals eyes widened as the implications hit him, but it was Daniel who spoke first.

"You want the satellite tasked to monitor Harris's people as well," he surmised.

"Exactly," O'Neill nodded, "not only will we learn a lot from observing what Harris is using the bird for, but it will be over the town 24/7"

"Why don't we have a unit assigned to guard this 'hellmouth' then?"

"If you mean 'we' as in the SGC, then it's an interdimensional threat that does not involve alien technology…" Daniel shrugged, "as much as I hate to say it, it's outside of our mandate"

"But if you mean 'we' as in the US Government then the Army is making a not so covert attempt to retake control of one of its black-ops groups which was preparing to move into the area" O'Neill shook his head, disgusted.

Hammond knew only one agency could get _that _look onto his face, "NID?"

"Yep," O'Neill scowled, "the soldiers have effectively mutinied against the NID and gone AWOL but they managed to gain the aid of a cop, you'll excuse me if I don't say who, the NID have bugged your office before sir"

"I understand," Hammond shook his head, "and frankly I am not sure I want to know. I do know this; we are going to need an official liaison if Harris is going to be seeing sat recon on a regular basis"

"Yes, but who would you trust with such an assignment?" Daniel frowned, "everyone I would consider for the role is far too valuable here to reassign"

"What about Davis?"

Hammond snorted, "He has enough on his plate just worrying about alien apocalypses let alone demonic"

"Yes," Daniel shrugged, "but whoever is assigned to work with and monitor Harris's group will no doubt have to liaise with Davies anyway. They will have to try and figure out which threats are alien and which are demonic after all"

Daniel paused, "And I can not believe I just said that with a straight face"

"How do you I think I feel everytime I get to read one of SG-1s mission reports?" Hammond shot back.

"Low blow General," O'Neill replied amused, "but I think Daniel has a point"

"Oh he has a point alright," Hammond shook his head as he reached for the phone, "question is; does Davis deserve the extra ulcers?"

* * *

His definition of 'surreal' got redefined several years ago when he was first briefed on the Stargate, although back then they still called it the 'gateway to heaven', an actual piece of alien technology? Unbelievable yet very true. 

At least he had a few years to get used to the idea before they got it working that first time. Then of course came the return mission to abydos…

Quite frankly Davis really doubted his definition of 'surreal' had stayed stable since then, what with footholds, alien cloaking devices, human bombs, O'Neill and Carter somehow managing _not _to get groiny…

Now, he had to add demonic to the mix, isn't that nice?

He hadn't believed a word Hammond said at first of course, I mean, demons, chosen ones, interdimensional holes somehow not being the same thing as alternate realities. It all sounded so unbelievable.

Then he said 'SG-1' and it all became just another day at the office.

Damn SG-1, it had gotten to the point where if they said that if the Titanic was going to dock in New York in three days time, he would be down there buying tickets for the return trip to England…

Not because they were never wrong, in fact they often were, but because when weird shit happens, they were always the ones at the centre of it and they were always the ones who managed to fix whatever mess had fallen into their laps this time.

If they said weird shit was happening, he tended to believe them… and reach for his industrial strength antacids.

It appeared as if they had lost their weird shit crown though, it appeared this 'Harris' and this 'Buffy' might be able to beat them for that crown. Strange, years ago he would have asked who in the hell named their kid Buffy? Nowadays, it didn't even seem to register.

He would blame _that _on SG-1 too. And yes; and the strays they tended to bring home with them of course.

So here he was, a respectable Major in the United States Airforce driving into small town America with three stakes in his pockets and a small water pistol loaded with Holy-water in his lap.

He really hated SG-1 sometimes.

* * *

"Mrs Walsh, we know you have your sister in your custody. I suggest you release her and get on with catching criminals… else your friends might start to have 'accidents" 

When Marshall Walsh got back into her office after finding that little note under the pillow of her bed, she was… unhappy.

The other officers took one look at her face and sudden became very industrious and highly interested in her work.

They didn't want that look directed at them.

It was a look that would peal paint off the walls and make an enraged grizzly bear flee in terror. It was a look that screamed anger and retribution and worse, _righteous _anger.

Somebody had really annoyed the boss, an amazing feat considering how even tempered she tended to be. Truth was though, they weren't worried about whom or why, they had only one concern in their heads.

Not getting caught in the fallout.


	20. Chapter 20

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty**

"Patrol, routine, boring" Buffy commented, waving around the graveyard she was slowly leading Major Davis through.

"Are you sure you should be tempting fate like that?" Davis commented, one hand resting firmly on the holster of his pistol, the other firmly gripping a wooden stake.

"Loosen up a bit, your far too tense" Buffy drawled "besides, it will most likely be quiet tonight, has been for months. The demons are, for the most part, running scared around here. Those that aren't are either very stupid or very dangerous"

"Or Gods,"

Buffy and Davis froze, shooting each other a wary look as they turned, their eyes catching on a tall, somehow predatorily beautiful figure in a sleek, expensive looking red dress.

"Now, one of you knows where my key is,"

Davis blinked, it was enough, by the time he opened his eyes again the unknown figure had one hand clamped firmly around the startled slayers neck, holding her feet well up off the ground.

"And I want my key"

* * *

"Xander, we have a problem" 

The aforementioned rolled his eyes, "Giles, when do we not have a problem? And what's with the Apollo 13 quotes anyway?"

"Shut up," Giles replied shortly, his short, blunt tone making Xander pay rather more attention, his eyes quickly catching on the med kit Giles was hastily checking, "we need a retrieval team, hostile on scene capable of taking a slayer out"

Xander blinked, and then cursed, his mind slipping into high gear even as his hand dived down towards the phone, "what happened?"

"Buffy was showing our new liaison around, but they got hit by an unknown, Davis managed to phone in a warning but only because the hostile seemed to be ignoring him. That ended abruptly when she realized he had called in reinforcements. The phone went dead maybe ten seconds before you walked in the door"

"Copy," Xander replied, grimly, his hands tapping out a number on the phone, "I think this calls for an all hands evolution"

"Quite,"

* * *

"She's here," Tara breathed, the feeling washing over her like a wave, "at last" 

"Whose here?" the strangely perky girl commented, "Anyway, you advertised for a shop assistant, I wish to apply for the job. I am very fluent in capitalism and trying to separate customers from their hard earned money"

"You'll have to speak to Giles," Tara stuttered, "he is the one who owns this shop"

"Oh," Anya shook her head, "then where is he? I wish to join the wonderful world of the gainfully employed"

Tara shot the former-demon a bemused look.

* * *

"Phone-call for you," Dawn shouted, nodding her head as this 'Mister Bond' glanced at her from the living room, a frown appearing on his face as if he was struggling to remember something. 

She hated that frown; she had been seeing it far too much today. Everyone had shot her that look, it was freaky, they all knew her, she was Buffy's sister for fucks sake. Heh, at least she was allowed to swear properly in her own head, mother couldn't stop that.

Still, it was odd, maybe she should ask Giles about it when she next saw him? Giles was after all, the King of the freaky, even if she wasn't supposed to know about that stuff.

"What? How is Buffy?"

Buffy, how is Buffy? Why would he be asking that unless… on fuck, Buffy.

Bond had her complete attention now, mums as well. And ew, may she just say watching those two flirting all afternoon was more then a little… sick?

They were both old after all.

* * *

"Mr and Mrs Harris?" 

"Yes, that's us" the man grunted, his breath, his whole body stinking of alcohol, both fresh and stale, his eyes were unfocused and he was swaying.

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was drunk.

"Federal Agents," Harry Tasker held his badge out, an evil glint coming into his eyes, at his side, Faisil held his out also, "we're here to discuss Mr Alexander Harris"

"That little bastard! What shit has he gotten into this time? I beat the shit out of that bastard if he has disgraced the Harris name again. I bet that slut, Buffy has gotten him into trouble again. Little bitch is good for nothing bar whoring…"

The glint in Taskers eyes was beyond dangerous now, it was in that nice comfortable area were the mind is calm, the tone of voice calm, nothing at all to betray the fact that Harry was literally seeing red.

Faisil knew that look though, and he had already taken a step back and away from his boss. He knew well that his boss was one of the best agents Omega had, but he also knew that if it came between his job and his family, Omega would be looking for a new agent, he was too protective of his family to do otherwise.

Mr Harris had managed to trigger of that protectiveness, which was a very bad thing for Mr Harris.

Faisil was almost relieved when his pager went off


	21. Chapter 21

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-one**

The first clue that her party was about to be interrupted was the force of a bolter round impacting her chest and exploding.

The first clue the reinforcements had that they might have a problem was the unknown individual in the hot red dress complaining that her outfit had been ruined and did they know how hard it was to find a good tailor these days?

It was, to be honest, a pretty good clue. Most people when hit with a bullet do more then complain that their outfit has been ruined.

For one, they tend to actually bleed.

* * *

"Oh heck," Willow cursed, her eyes wide as she noted with swift efficiency the lack of damage to the body of the unknown her weapon had caused. 

Obvious conclusion, despite the fact that she looked human, she wasn't.

That made her demonic, the bloody and battered body of the Slayer clearly showed that she was hostile, and the lack of physical damage from the bullet indicated she was going to be a tough kill.

Fun, of the kind that was certainly _not. _

Shaking her head, she flicked the comm-unit set into her armoured helmet on.

"Thorn to Grey Knight. Bring a bottle…" Willow paused, considering this for a moment, Xander would know to turn back and pick up the heavy equipment before arriving to take charge of the battle from that code phrase alone, one which Willow strongly suspected he had borrowed from his old Action Force comics, but still, if this unknown could shrug off a bolter round without _any _visible damage… something Sterns memories were quite clear that even a Greater Demon could not do. They were always damaged by a Bolter, even if it was not by much, it meant they had a real problem on their hands.

"Bring _lots _of bottles," she continued firmly, her bolter swinging on its strap as she discarded it in favour of her chainsword, perhaps a melee attack would have a better result?

She just the Machine-God was with her today, otherwise her armour would prove little barrier to one who could throw the Slayer around and take bolter rounds with so little impunity.

* * *

"We have a probable situation in Sunnydale" Hammond started, only to be stopped by the abrupt groans that filled the room, "I know what you all think of that town and yes, I am well aware how many alerts that place tends to generate in a week alone. This time it's serious" 

Hammond smiled inwardly as SG-1 came to attention, O'Neill's eyes showing his apology as he caught the implied rebuke in the Generals words.

"For about three months now, we have been investigating an individual called Glorificus who claims to be a banished God,"

"Goa'uld?" the Colonel asked warily.

"We had believed so at first, especially considering the legion of non-human servants this Glorificous maintains however the situation with Sunnydale has forced us to re-evaluate that position. We tentatively concluded that Glorificous was possibly of demonic origin and were arranging a briefing package for the 'Scooby's' when the surveillance team went abruptly off the air. Their bodies were found just six hours ago. Their last report indicated that Glorificous was searching for something called 'The Key' and was preparing to head for Sunnydale. That was several days ago. Major Davis has just missed a scheduled check-in and calls on the hotline to Sunnydale result in an automated 'on deployment' message"

"When do we leave?" O'Neill asked swiftly.

* * *

"Retreat!" 

She had never thought those words would come from her mouth, they certainly would never have come from Battlesister Thorns, but Thorn was only interested with her duty to the Emperor, everything else was secondary. Willow, she had to worry about the lives of her people as well as the mission and she wasn't going to see them wasted.

"Fall back to the bravo assembly point"

She truly hated to leave her Battlesister behind, but she had no choice. They couldn't defeat the unknown, not yet. They needed to find out who and what she was first. That meant research, lots of it, if she was lucky; she would find the beings weakness quickly, perhaps quickly enough to save Buffy.

If not, then there would be trouble, in fact, she would make damned sure there was a rampage.

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

There was an impact on Willows armour, and she found herself flying backwards, pain screaming through every nerve in her chest.

"None of you are leaving until somebody tells me where my key is"

* * *

With a curse, Xander lumbered his way through the streets, ignoring the way even the cops would carefully look away as he passed, his heavy armour making the ground shake and quiver as he ran. 

Or, ran as best he could in several tonnes of Terminator armour.

Normally he would have left the beast at base, used a lighter protection, but Willow had asked for a bottle and that meant the brown and sticky stuff had hit the rotary impacting device.

Which was better, arriving swiftly, or arriving later but in a far more combat capable form?

Damnation, he really wished that they had some form of transport capable of taking and moving a Terminator, but even Rhinos had real difficulties with that.

A Land Raider would be cool, but frankly, he rather suspected it would be years before they could make one of those. No, they would just have to come up with something unique as an interim solution.

Until then, he had work to do. The reported co-ordinates for Willow were just around the corner, time to bring all systems to full combat power.

As he turned the final corner, a dark armoured figure shot past him, sparks flying as the heavy form slid along the ground. A quick glance was all it took.

_Willow… _

Okay, Xander told himself, Storm Bolter raised as he turned in the direction Willow had come from, I am officially… _unhappy. _


	22. Chapter 22

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Two**

The first clue Glorifcus had that things might not be going exactly to plan was when she hit the latest interloper and the full force of her punch barely made the man rock backwards, the heavy weight of his armour more then adequately protecting him from the force of the blow.

The fact that the unknowns blow had actually made him rock backwards in his armour was merely the second clue Xander had that the unknown wasn't exactly normal, Willow flying past in her full armour suit was after all, a good indicator that he was fighting someone with one hell of a right hook.

It made both of the pause; take one step back and assess each other for a moment before the dance began again in earnest.

To the eyes of Harry Tasker, diving swiftly out of his rental car at the edge of the battlefield, it appeared to be a clash of titans.

Glorificus was faster, consistently outmanoeuvring Xander in his heavy, cumbersome terminator armour, but his armour was a mastercrafted relic, try as she might, Glorificus was merely denting the heavy armour and scratching the highly, expensively gaudy decoration.

Xander on the other hand held in his armoured hands the massively powerful form of the Emperors personnel sword, the forerunner of what would eventually become the nemesis force weapons granted only to the dedicated Demon Hunters of the Grey Knights. This was a consecrated weapon capable of injuring even a second circle demon, Xander had little doubt that it could injure the unknown bleached blonde… if only he could figure out what exactly she was.

His senses said powerful, but doesn't belong here, quite possibly insane.

Didn't tell him how to kill or what exactly she was though. Nothing tickled on his senses to say demon though, which was interesting in itself. There were very few things that powerful that weren't demons, a clue of sorts.

It was Glorificus who broke and run, growling and annoyed but astoundingly fast from the battlefield, not appearing worried by Xander so much as the fact that one so powerful as to resist her magnificent self could actually have reinforcements. It tipped the scales to much, she would have to figure out who exactly these idiots were and fast, then she would know how to defeat them.

Strangely enough, Xanders thoughts on the matter were almost identical.

* * *

"Fuck…. Me…" 

"You wish," Carter replied automatically, then blushed as she realised what exactly she had just said to her CO.

"This," Xander said calmly, but his eyes betraying his anger, "just became an information war. I fought this 'Glorificus' to a standstill and judging by the information provided by SG-1 that is really going to rankle. She is certainly going to do everything in her power to find out as much as possible about us and we are certainly going to have to do the same. I rather suspect whoever discovers the others secret first is going to win"

"We may," Buffy croaked, her face betraying her battered condition, "have one advantage. Glorificus is looking for what she called 'Her Key', if we can figure out what that is first and gain control over it…"

"then we will gain some degree of control over Glorificus herself," Xander nodded, "it's a thought, Giles, get research onto that please. Have you discovered anything on Glorificus herself?"

"No," Giles frowned, his glasses held loosely in his hands, "and that worries me. I can't remember coming across her name in any of the books available to me…" he paused, deliberately catching Xanders eyes, "ever"

"Damn," Xander frowned, "any chance of gaining the assistance of the Council?"

"Perhaps," the ex-watcher grimaced, "but they would demand a price for such assistance and it might not be one you would be willing to pay"

"For the moment, that's out then," Buffy shook her head, "but Giles? Council are going to have to face a reckoning at some point"

"Indeed, but is it really your place to determine when that reckoning occurs?"

"If not me, who else?" Xander shrugged, "you know as well as I do that plans have been drawn up ready in case we have to move swiftly against them. You also know that not is not the time, we don't have the support, the infrastructure in place to just depose and replace them and we certainly have a more immediate concern"

"Yes, quite"

"Will ordinary weapons effect this Glorificus?" Fasil asked somewhat nervously.

Xander frowned, "Willow put a full clip from a Bolter into her, it merely damaged the outfit she was wearing. I think we can rule out pistols, rifles, machine guns and their ilk as possible threats to Glory"

"Heavier weapons?" Harry Tasker asked swiftly.

"Possible, but I'm afraid we may be looking at a target that can only be killed by a specific class of weapon or under specific circumstances" Xander grimaced, "unfortunately, that is the norm for the mystically based creatures"

"Your sword is the only Nemesis weapon we have," Giles noted, glancing at Xander, "that I am afraid may be our best shot. If we could acquire a troll hammer…"

"A what?" Buffy asked when she realized Giles wasn't going to continue.

Giles shrugged tightly, "Troll Hammer, a normal human can't even pick one up but I know of at least two occasions when a slayer has wielded them in battle. They quite literally weigh several tons"

Buffy blinked, then grinned, "the blunt force trauma approach to warfare… I like"

"Yes," Giles smirked, "I thought you might"

Buffy smile stayed for a minute, and then slowly slipped, "hey!"


	23. Chapter 23

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Three**

"Dawnie, what are you doing here?" Tara asked as the young girl slipped into the shop.

"Getting out of the house," Dawn replied, a disturbed and horrified look on her face, "walked in after school and heard…."

Tara walked across concerned as the youth shuddered, her expression screaming of great revulsion.

"What is it? Do we need to call Xander? Is your mother okay?"

Dawn sat down, her expression slipping into a grimace, "she's okay… judging by the noise the bed-springs were making at least"

Tara's mouth twitched.

"It's not funny, she's old! It should be illegal for anyone over the age of twenty-five to have sex"

Tara raised a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes screaming amusement.

"I mean, talk about gross and disturbing,"

Tara gave up, and just laughed out loud.

"Oh great, laugh at me now, what would you have done if you walked in to hear that?"

Tara abruptly stopped laughing, her expression swiftly becoming disturbed.

"Right," Dawn replied victorious.

* * *

"So, what do we know about this Key?" Xander asked, gazing across the table at Giles. 

"Nothing," he shrugged, "I'm afraid there are far too many items just referred to as 'keys', from an artefact supposedly owned by the Dagon Monks, to a wardrobe kept by the Pevensies, to the blood of the fallen ascended…"

Giles grimaced, "I could go on but I won't. We need more information if we are to have any idea what key this Glory is referring too. Unfortunately, we can not even cross-reference as we have no references to this Glory on record. Or at least, not that I have found yet"

"Damn it," Xander growled, "its not as if we would be able to capture and interrogate this Glory either, she's too powerful for that"

"Forget the head then," Helen Tasker said, looking up from her reading, an old, tatty and well used book labelled 'Famous Vampyres', "grab a servant"

"We would need to know who the servants were," Giles pointed out, "at the moment, we do not know for certain that this 'Glorificus' actually has any"

"Perhaps not," Xander mused, "but we can find out"

* * *

"I want to know exactly how this situation has managed to escape our control," Simmonds asked calmly, but with a slight edge of disgust. 

"I wish I knew myself," Maybourne replied, "but Walsh… _Marshall _Walsh isn't listening to any threats, has already cracked her sister and so far has avoided our assassination teams"

"Any of them survive to talk?"

Maybourne paused before replying, "Officially, they are all dead. Unofficially, I got the feeling she managed to capture at least one group"

"Great, just… great" Simmonds replied, not happy, "now what are we supposed to do? She is tearing the organisation apart cell by cell"

"Its worse then that," Maybourne replied, "that's what I came to warn you about. It looks like our secured servers have been compromised"

" _What?" _

"Somebody knew what they were doing," Maybourne shook his head in annoyed admiration, "most hackers get caught in the black holes we set up in the programming long enough for a negation team to deal with them but whoever this is, they didn't even take a step into them. It was like they instinctively knew that they were a trap, a lot of data perhaps but a minefield of such"

"Great," Simmonds shook his head, "well, at least it's not admissible"

"Perhaps not," Maybourne replied, "but it _is _usable"

"Do we know who the hacker was?"

"A trace placed the origin of the hack at a net café in the Ida Galaxy,"

Simmonds shot Maybourne a startled, unimpressed look.

Maybourne just shook his head, "we think perhaps somebody was taking the piss"

"You think?" Simmonds muttered.

Maybourne's pager bleeped and he glanced down pulling the device off his belt, then with a curse, he said, "we've lost two agents in the SGC, one from a team, one from the armoury. That's six this week, we only have one left and frankly, it's a safe bet that she has been compromised"

"This is a problem," Simmonds mused, "well, I think the subtle approach has failed, I'm afraid we may need to take more direct and perhaps more public action"

"Do you think our 'friend' in Conrad could use a new host?"

"No," Simmonds shook his head, "interesting thought though it might be, I have other plans for that creature"

Simmonds watch bleeped an alarm and the two nodded, separating quickly, knowing better to stay in a single public space longer then the limit.

Simmonds raised his hands, signalling a Cab, but Maybourne watched him go, and then slowly, casually walked three blocks before dropping the remnants of the burger he had ordered along the way into a bin.

Half an hour later, the bin was emptied, the dumper truck proceeding straight to the basement of the US Marshall's headquarters.


	24. Chapter 24

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Four**

Buffy grinned as she walked in the door to her house, her expression screaming California Air-head even as the sword she was so calmly swinging around gave lie to that thought.

"Mum, I'm home," She shouted, shrugging as there was no response from the kitchen or living room, her mums usual haunts whilst she was at home, and the door was open, so she had to be home…

Unconcerned, she walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

As she reached the top step, a scream filled the house.

Shocked and disturbed, her mind automatically kicking her body into full 'fight' mode, her sword raised as she slammed through the door to her mothers room where the scream had come from, her eyes automatically searching for a monster.

She found one all right, the monster with two backs…

* * *

Xander shuddered violently, "Somebody just walked across my grave" 

Giles glanced upwards, his expression pensive, "a demonic army walked across mine by the feels of it"

They glanced at each other, "I sense a disturbance in the Force" Xander commented.

"Yes, well, an odd feeling doesn't necessarily mean trouble is on its way"

Xander shot him an off look, "Hellmouth, of course, I'll just go research shall I?"

"Probably a good idea," Xander commented, "I'll do a quick patrol, see if I can spot anything"

"Indeed," Giles watched out the corner of his eye as Xander strobe out of the room, "and may the farce be with you"

Surprised, Xander walked straight into door.

* * *

"Well, well, what do we have here?" 

"That's our Tango," Captain Eva replied, her eyes following the ranting figure through her issue binoculars, "and those… scabs certainly seem to be accepting orders from her"

"We have our servants then," Twin number one responded.

"Indeed," Eva replied, releasing the binoculars, letting them fall down knowing that they would not be lost due to the string tying them around her neck, "okay, standard covert capture, we want one of them alone and we need a fast evac ready"

"Reinforcements?" Twin two asked, his voice calm, professional.

"Certainly," Eva nodded, "we don't know how strong they are or if they have any special capabilities so we have no way of estimating there strength, no way of knowing how many of us it will take to capture one"

Twin one nodded his voice quiet as he spoke into his radio.

"For the moment," Eva continued, "I suggest we stay and monitor the targets"

* * *

"Well," Gibbs commented cheerfully, "the Harris's wont be seeing daylight for a good few years" 

"Really?" Harry Tasker replied, pleased, "what did the judge give them?"

"Ten Years, a restraining order preventing them from getting within 200 feet of Xander, and a restraining order against them being allowed to have further children in any way shape or form" Gibbs grinned, "Oh and Xander got emancipated"

"Good," Helen replied, her expression harsh as she walked into the room, "how the kid ended up so much of a white knight with _parents _" she spat out the word, her venom tainting her voice, "like that I shall never know"

"Friends," Faisil replied, shrugging, "he had good friends to help keep him straight. If I was a betting person, I would say without Willow to keep him sane, he would be as bad as if not worse then his parents"

Harry nodded; he could see it all too clearly.

"I got the impression Willow needed him too," Helen noted, "her parents might not be abusive but they certainly do not give her the attention a child needs"

"Does anyone in this town have decent parents?" Harry asked, disturbed, "Willow, Xander, Cordelia…"

"Could be another symptom of the corrupting influence of the hellmouth" Gibbs pointed out, his mouth full of Pot Noodle, his face slipping into a grimace as the heat hit his throat, he should have left the damn thing to sit and cool down a few minutes before starting to eat it.

"Cordelia?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised.

"Think material goods compensate for a lack of affection" Faisil replied.

"Great," Helen shook her head, "and for all her apparent airheadidness, there's a core of solid steel inside that one"

"So…" Harry mused, "Is something protecting the hearts and minds of the children then? Keeping them safe even as there parents turn away?"

"Would have to ask Giles," Gibbs shook his head, "would be nice to think so though"

Harry nodded, casually stealing some of Gibbs food, "any news of Faith?"

"Chequered history," Faisil shook his head, passing a file across, "minor convictions, robbery, indecent exposure, but nothing big. Her father is dead, Police still have a question mark over exactly how, mother is a heavy abuser of drugs and alcohol and is suspected of having pimped her own daughter off on several occasions to make money to buy more drugs"

Harry grunted his body tense as he read the file. His expression slipped into outraged, passed through incredulous and settled finally on 'very pissed off'

"Pysch profile suggests some instability," Faisil continued, "its unlikely that the court will allow her to be emancipated because of that. She needs a decent family, one that will care for her and yet, knows about the… night"

Harry snorted.

Helen just shook her head, "subtle Faisil, really subtle"

"Perhaps," Fasil replied, "but Dana has always been your strength and your weakness. You know as well as I do that she has been used against you before. On a practical level it's a good idea to keep a girl that looks so much like Dana close, on a personal, that _child _needs a good family, one that knows enough to accept a few oddities due to her demon hunting, I'm afraid you qualify. Besides, she gets on real well with Dana, we've yet to figure out exactly how and when they met, though its looks like Dana has known of Faith for at least three months but its obvious that they like and trust each other"

Harry grunted, "We'll consider it" he replied, passing the folder across to his wife, "now, what is the President saying about this group?"

"Co-operate," Gibbs shrugged, "and study. For the moment, he has told the alphabets 'hands off' but he has been discussing the situation with the Joint Chiefs and a few others. I suspect he has no intention of letting the situation stand"

"Damn," Harry replied, "which way do you suspect he is going to go? Support or control?"

"No idea," Gibbs shook his head, "sorry, but I know he's relying on the Chiefs for advice here and they are split, some see independents as the best option, some say the very existence of such independent groups with access to magical weaponry makes them a major threat to the security of the United States"

"They have a point," Harry grimaced, "but still, I don't agree. A threat like this, perhaps an agency to keep an eye on the independents, watch for corruption would be in order but if there is truly going to be international cooperation against the demonic threat then Government control would be the worst possible answer"

"Not to mention," Helen put in, "individuals like Kinsey deciding to take control of such forces…"

"He should be negated" Gibbs spat out.

"Amen," Harry replied softly, his expression thoughtful.


	25. Chapter 25

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Five**

Xander looked up concerned as Buffy slowly walked in through the door into the Library, interrupting his patrol report to Giles "Buffy what's up?"

Giles glanced up too, then straightened up swiftly, catching the look in his Slayers eyes, a look he recognised as the 'thousand yard stare'

"Monster," Buffy managed to spit out.

"Where Buffy?" Giles asked concerned, "and what did it do to you?"

"Mum and Bond… monster"

Xander shot Giles a half bemused, half scared look at that, "okay, there is a monster and it has your mum and Bond. Any idea where it is?"

"Mum… bedroom… Bond,"

"It has Bond and is in Mums bedroom?"

Dazed, Buffy shook her head no, "mum and Bond… bed… monstrous"

A startled look crossed over Giles face, and he hid his face behind a book to hide his smile.

"Okay Giles," Xander asked carefully, "whats up?"

"I do believe she burst in on her mum and Mr Bond in the bedroom," Giles replied calmly.

"Oh," a disturbed look crossed Xanders face, "they're old, they shouldn't be doing things like that, it's gross!"

Giles just shook his head bemused and walked away, leaving Xander to deal with a seriously grossed out and near-catatonic Slayer.

* * *

"Where has that scab gone?" Glory screamed frustrated, "if I have to go searching for him…" 

"Most Glorificusness," a cowering form beside her said carefully, "there are some signs of a fight near the last place your most humble servant was known to be"

"A fight," Glory frowned, "who with?"

"Soldiers your most beautifulness," the cowering thing replied, gazing up worshipfully at its master, "bullets littered the ground around the fight and there was a tattered piece of his cloak left behind"

"So," Glory replied breezily, her eyes fading, the sanity in them slipping away once more, "my enemies have him. No doubt they plan on making him tell tales out of school"

"He would not betray your grace,"

"For his sake I hope so," Glory replied, slipping woozily, airily into a seat, "now bring me someone young and tender. Find him later…"

* * *

"Boss is pissed," 

Gerard snorted, "An agency of the United States Government tried to have her killed; I would be kind of pissed too,"

"True," Cosmo replied, "but at least she is getting somewhere"

"Yes," Cooper noted, "but I would love to know exactly who sent us the instructions of how to get into the NID mainframes"

Gerard snorted, "Wouldn't we all. Whoever it was, they were either on the inside or real good at their jobs"

"Good enough to crack into half the defence computers in the western world and have them send out a communiqué to all the Special Forces types?" Cosmo asked calmly.

Gerard froze for just a moment, and then grinned, "I do believe you have a point Cosmo, congratulations"

"Yea yea," he replied sarcastically, "so, you think it was them?"

"I think," Gerard replied carefully, "that if it wasn't them, they at least have a pretty good idea who it was"

"Just the thing to make a complicated situation worse," Cooper pointed out, "there actions were illegal as such we have an oath to uphold, we should bring them in. Flipside to that, those actions helped us and as much as I hate to say it, those vigilantes do good and necessary work"

Gerard shrugged, "their… situation has been passed up the chain. For the moment it's the problem of people who earn far bigger pay checks then we do"

"There he is," Cooper interrupted, "blue ford by the lights"

"Okay, I got him," Gerard commented a moment later, swiftly pulling the unremarkable car out into the traffic, following the blue vehicle Cooper had spotted, "Mr Simmonds, where are you headed?"

* * *

O'Neill grimaced as he stepped into the Library, he doubted, no, he hoped he would never get used to the thought of going to school kids whenever problems came to the fore, certainly not when those problems involved powerful beings who claimed to be Gods. 

It rankled, he was an Airforce Officer, it was his job, his responsibility to keep the children of the nation, heck given his recent job, the Earth safe and yet, if it involved Sunnydale or Sunnydale type business at some point he would be answering to mere children.

They should be worrying about dates, about grades and about how they looked; they certainly should not be worrying about the continued existence of the earth and about saving lives whilst they were still in school.

But, they were and for the moment, he had little choice in the matter.

Didn't mean he had to like it though.

"Anything new on Glorificus?"

O'Neill shook himself out of his thoughts as he heard Xander speak.

"Yes," he replied calmly, carefully hiding his feelings for the moment, "Eva and the Twins managed to catch a break; we got a Scab waiting for interrogation"


	26. Chapter 26

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Six**

Times like this Xander wished that somebody in the town had gone as a loyal Inquisitor. Not that the Xander part of him truly liked the idea of the Inquisition and the dark works they would often do in the name of preserving humanity but having someone handy who had little if any qualms about torturing a prisoner for information would certainly be handy. As it was, he didn't think any of them had the Scab truly convinced that they would happily cause him pain.

Besides, scared of this 'Glory' the scab might be, but he was also awed by her and loyal. Altogether, that was a nasty combination. They needed something to break it.

Damnation, he had no issues with intimidation when necessary, nor with killing of those demons and frankly, even humans that proved themselves a threat to those he considered family. But torture?

The part of him that was the God Emperor of Mankind truly didn't see the problem, believing almost implicitly in the 'Greater Good', but the part of him that was Xander was shying away from the task at hand.

It showed, and the Scab was not afraid of him.

Fine, Xander considered, how do I make the Scab afraid of me?

"Tell me what you know of Glorificus'es plans or I will baste you with acid before roasting you over an open fire,"

Or he could just leave the job to Ripper, and quietly slip out the door.

* * *

"You know," Riley commented calmly, "we're black operatives right, doing work that often borders on technically illegal and quite frequently crosses into blatant illegality all in the name of King and Country," 

"President and Country," Graham pointed out.

Riley shrugged the correction off, "legally, we don't exist and standard operational procedures include avoiding the Police like the plague but if we have to assist or use or in any way control the Police, we're supposed to pretend to be a legal authority,"

"No sure where you are going with this Riley," Forrest commented.

Riley shot him a look, "we're in the back of a SWAT van, surrounded by Police Officers who know damn well who and what we are and we who are distinctly black are about to assist in the serving of a legal, upfront arrest warrant. Aren't you seeing the incongruity here?"

"Riley," Forrest replied, "sometimes you think too much. Right now, you should just be going with the flow."

"Going with the flow, right."

* * *

"Your Great Luscious Gloriousness," 

Glory turned and glared; whenever a Scab got _that _grovelly she knew that a major screw-up had just occurred. She hated screw-ups; they gave her worse headaches then eating the already insane.

"We have tracked down the missing Scab,"

"Okay," Glory replied, her voice turning cold, "then where is he and why haven't you attempted to retrieve him?"

"The armoured man you fought, the Mister Harris has him,"

"Really," Glory rose swiftly from the couch, "then I think its time I paid him a personal visit after I've had someone to eat,"

* * *

Harry Tasker watched the two girls laugh and play with wary eyes. He trusted Dana to a point, and Faith certainly seemed to be good for her, but there was still far too many question marks involved. 

What had Faith being doing whilst she was on the streets?

How and when had they met, hell, how did the two know to show up here? This was a mission; Dana hadn't been told where they were only kept informed as to _how _they were. Yet, she had found them and in quite a confident manner at that.

It screamed leak, but he doubted his daughter would be involved in such and he knew the boss wouldn't knowingly let Dana come into an area as dangerous as this Sunnydale. The only reason he had allowed her to stay now was to keep an eye on her 'new' friend.

No, something wasn't right here and he fully intended to find out what before he let Dana out of his sight again.

* * *

"So," Xander calmly asked, walking into the library, "what do we know of this key?" 

"Well," Willow shrugged, "so far we've catalogued about two-thousand possibilities which we're cross-referencing and listing by how dangerous they are but frankly, need a little more then just that it's a key,"

Xander nodded, "Giles is working on the captured scab now, we might have more for you later,"

"Hopefully," Daniel commented, "he will tell us something of this Glory as well. I've found nothing in Giles book and the SGC is still drawing a blank. At the moment, we have nearly two-hundred people researching this but still nothing."

"Then I am afraid I have some bad news for you,"

Xander stiffened, turning to glare directly into the eyes of Quentin Travers even as he noted the presence of a large group of very nervous looking Watchers just outside the door.

"Glory isn't a demon, she is a true God but according to the information we have, she wasn't supposed to arrive in Sunnydale for a further two years. That changed abruptly at Halloween."

"Fuck," Xander commented disgustedly, waving the head Watcher into a seat, "okay, spotlights yours. Dazzle us please."


	27. Chapter 27

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Seven**

"How do you kill a God?" Harry Tasker asked calmly, but somewhat incredulously.

Colonel O'Neill snorted, "Not normally a problem, most of those who claim to be Gods aren't,"

"Right," Daniel replied, "but if you believe Travers then Glory is a true God,"

"If that were so, couldn't she, you know, kill us just by thinking about it?" Faisil replied nervously.

"She doesn't belong here," Xander grimaced, "that is our only advantage. The Chaos Powers drew their energy from worship, the more they were worshipped, the more evil carried out in their name, the more powerful that Power became."

"You believe the same rule applies to this Glory?" Teal'c asked.

"It is possible," Xander shrugged, "would explain a few things."

"So, No worshippers, no power?" Gibbs replied, "Doesn't explain how she tossed you about so well,"

"She may be relatively weak here because she doesn't have access to the bulk of her worshippers but she is still a God, and some level of power is inherent to being a God,"

"So, can she be killed?"

"Yes," Giles replied, rubbing his glasses, "I mean, everything and everyone can be killed. That is perhaps the only truly fundamental rule of the universe, that everything can be killed. The question is always _how _"

"Given the geeks have come up blank so far," O'Neill frowned, ignoring the glares and protests from said geeks, "can she be sidelined? I mean, frozen or something to give the geeks time to find out how she can be killed?"

"Definitely," Buffy replied, "she takes hits well but still, she is in a human body, like the vamps, she can be tossed about,"

"Agreed," Xander cracked a smile, "double on that 'takes hit well' at that."

"Interesting way of saying it though Buffy," Helen Tasker noted, "if this 'Glory' is in a human body, where did she get it from? Or perhaps, whose was it?"

"Well, it is possible to magically create a human body; it is entirely possible that Glory was effectively forced into a blank slate. It could also be her natural form…"

"From what I have been reading in your books," Daniel interjected, "it is also entirely possible that somebody else's body is being used, at which point, we have a potential weakness. This needs to be checked out."

"Well, of course," Giles replied.

"That brings us to another point, this 'key'," Xander noted.

"Still don't know enough to have any hope of identifying it," Daniel shrugged.

"Has Eva gotten back to you yet?" O'Neill asked.

"No," Xander glanced across at the clock, frowning, "she's a little overdue at that."

Giles reached across, dragging the phone across the desk towards himself. Two minutes later, he looked up at the expectant looking group with a scared frown, "they're not responding,"

Chilled, Xander ran from the room, pausing only to activate the power cell on his sword, the rest of the group following swiftly in his footsteps.

* * *

"You know as well as I do M that it was well past time that I retired," Bond replied carefully into the phone, his eyes flicking between the tell-tales on the blue encryption device and scanning the street, "already far too many questions were being asked about how I was still able to perform my duties despite what, according to my birth certificate, was advanced age." 

Bond grimaced, "yes, the differing photos are not helping much either,"

"You know I can't tell you that,"

"M, I served Queen and Country loyally, I know the odd… other job annoyed you at times but you never questioned the morals of the other work I was doing,"

"Still, I do think its time I moved on, and did something else,"

"Okay, I can see that you don't want to loss your best agent and I thank you for the complement, but still, I am not a young man anymore, not by any stretch of the imagination."

"Okay, so the _body _might be young but the mind certainly isn't."

"M, I have made my decision. Don't worry, I have no intention of breaking my oath, the secrets I know stay secret," Bond grimaced, "well, with that obvious exception of course."

"So, you can guarantee that nothing I have done in my years of service is going to come back and bite me on the rear? I didn't think so. Either way, unless it is too late, I will try and contact you first should there be a problem."

"M, Goodbye."

Bond carefully removed the device from the phone, wiped the call box carefully clean of prints and strode away from his old life.

* * *

Carefully, Tara weaved her magics, calling upon the Goddess as a conduit, to allow her access to levels of Earth Magic she would not be able to channel on her own. If the God found her purpose true, then she would have power enough for what she needed to do. 

There was an innocent out there who needed to be protected, and whilst she could not fight, she did have access to other means.

She resisted the urge to gasp as she felt the power reach her, the purity of it warming and caressing her, making her fell simultaneously loved, powerful, protected and contented. This was the truest, the most powerful magic's, the magic of the earth itself. Without the filtering Gaia would provide, such magic's would be far beyond her, but she obviously felt her purpose worthy and she had her aid.

Carefully, slowly, but with relentless purpose, Tara chanted, weaving the energies she had been given into a protective charm that should keep Dawn safe, hide her from Glory, prevent the hell-Goddess from realizing she was the key. Into the spell, she painstakingly introduced other protections, calling a blessing onto Dawns own blood, a potent protection against vampires, for if they drank from her it would be as if they were drinking consecrated water blessed by the Pope himself. To that, she added an aura of healing and finally, an aura of protectiveness, an aura that would make others, be they human or demon, look favourably upon Dawn, to want to protect an aid her.

Wearied beyond belief, Tara reached for the shirt of Dawn's she had managed to acquire, using it as a connection to Dawn, this she could use to imprint the magics onto Dawn herself.

Tara changed she chant, channelling the magics now, not summoning or changing them, pushing them towards the essence that was purely Dawn and not the key.

Abruptly, Tara barked out a scream, her body convulsing spasmodically, the unmistakable wrenching of not merely a misfired spell but a deliberately blocked one wracking her exhausted body. Tears pouring from her eyes, she forced herself to her feet, forcing her chant word by word from her lungs, fighting whatever magic prevented her from adding her wards, her protections from Dawn.

She felt an essence join her, assisting her fight, pushing the magics towards Dawn. She felt another, powerful act to resist it. She felt her aid fall back in shock; the she felt the magic die, going somewhere that wasn't Dawn.

Exhausted, both magically, emotionally and physically, Tara collapsed to the floor, crying herself to sleep, knowing she had failed in her task and at that moment, hating herself for it.

In the front room of the magic box, Anya felt the sudden urge to check on her fellow shopkeeper. It had been a few hours since she had gone in the back room to start the stores inventory after all, and shy though she was, Tara was a friend. Wasn't it the human thing to keep an eye on and help your friend after all?

It didn't occur to her that just that morning she had looked upon Tara with a certain degree of contempt, considering her weak and useless.


	28. Chapter 28

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

**Twenty-Eight**

Xander looked across stony-faced as three of his people were led away, their minds gone, perhaps irretrievably tainted by the unknown 'God' who dared to strike against his people, his responsibilities. Just another act for which he would have to claim vengeance, at least, he would as soon as he knew how.

This 'Glory' was certainly no ordinary demon, she displayed power and strength far greater then any of the lesser demons eking out their existence on Earth, he might have thought she was a pure demon but there was a purity and strength in her power that could only mean she had a soul of her own. The highest true demons were known to have souls, but if she was one of them then her merely being present on Earth would have meant mass corruptions and humans falling in worship of her.

Such demons were near impossible for the untrained to resist after all, that was why it was so _easy _for the Ruinous Powers to corrupt entire worlds once they had their foothold. With a small band of worshippers ready and willing to make the necessary sacrifices they could send one of their lesser powered servants. That servant merely by being there would project a corrupting aura which would help turn more humans to the taint. With more worshippers, a more powerful servant could be sent, projecting a larger corrupting aura, converting more humans… until at least the highest servants arrived, such beings as the Great Unclean One or the Bloodthirster.

There was no sign of such here, which meant she wasn't a highlevel demon, but she did have a soul. This was interesting, and worth further thought. She could have been a normal human at some point, one that had elevated herself by corrupt and arcane rituals… or she could truly be a God as Travers had stated.

That part of him which was very much the God Emperor of Mankind sensed evil in her but little if any taint, that suggested against elevation or ascension, which put God very much in the limelight. Yet powerful though she was, she lacked the powers he would expect from a God, she appeared to have no ability to change, to warp the world, beyond what she could physically accomplish she had shown no ability to remake even the smallest portion of the world in her own image and that power was the hallmark of a God.

It was an interesting lack, perhaps that power was as fundamental to a 'God' as he had thought, or perhaps it was an ability that came with worship. That meant she was likely trying to get home, back to where she had her full powers, perhaps that was what she wanted this 'Key' for?

Xander felt his stony mask crack into a tight frown, _wait a minute…_

* * *

Kendra was getting annoyed, she knew full well that Xander and his troops had been busy chasing down this 'Glory' and her minions and that even he had taken damage at her hands. She knew well that he was using normal humans in the fight and that he considered that the soldiers and assorted detritus he had managed to recruit had proved her worth… and she also knew that she apparently hadn't.

"I'm de _Slayer, _" she snarled at the terrified forms of the vampires, who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, "trained to fight, gifted with strength and power beyond any mere soldier but still he forgets me, leaves me on de sideline…"

The vampires exchanged helpless, petrified glances but unfortunately for them, were not smart enough to keep their mouths shut. The tallest vampire, a henpecked gangly looking individual was heard to comment quietly under his breathe about it apparently being her time of the month.

Kendra froze, going abruptly perfectly still and the more sensible vampires in the now ten strong group abruptly wet their pants.

* * *

"Now _that _was stupid," came the comment from a distant van, "I think maybe we'll talk to her later. Right now, I think she's very much in a shoot first, ask questions of the battered and scattered parts later type mood," 

"Herman doesn't want to see her now, she thinks maybe she'll crush his dear little petals,"

"If you don't stop talking to your plant, I'll stick you in a demon suit and shove you right in front of her fool!"

"Tempting, but I pity the fools who hang around to get spying on the Slayer right now,"

"She won't pity the fools, she'll crush them!"

"Right,"

Two seconds later the large black vehicle tore away with a squeal of protesting rubber as the driver finally caught on.

* * *

"What's going on?" Kinsley demanded, striding imperiously annoyed towards Colonel Maybourne, "you know you aren't supposed to be contacting me like this!" 

"Simmonds had been arrested for treason and the plane carrying Conrad to his new hidey-hole didn't arrive," Maybourne replied, his voice firm and sure, even as his eyes betrayed a little fear, "the IRS just hit our largest front in Washington DC and five full cells are no longer in contact,"

Kinsley scowled, "it appears I am correct, we do have a rat within the woodpile."

The ratty little NID agent nodded his agreement, "ironic if you think about it, but still. I have ordered measures put into place to help us find the rat, they're cant have been too many people after all who knew not just of Conrad and Simmonds but of the five cells as well. That should narrow the possibilities down if we assume there is only one mole…"

Kinsley nodded sharply once, not missing Maybourne's implication at all, "we can't assume there is just one mole,"

"Exactly,"

"This is all because of that bitch Walsh,"

"She's escaped the assassins too many times; I would suspect we had somebody leaking the assassination plans… except each set of orders went through entirely different channels using entirely different cells and personnel. Not to mention, the independent contractors…" Maybourne shrugged hopelessly, "it's almost as if she has a Seer at her disposal."

Kinsley grimaced, "I would not put it past her. How goes the plans to undermine her?"

"Press are taking the leaks with far too much salt, I think they were warned about a possible move to discredit the Chief Marshall."

"What about _our _press?"

"They're running with it, but I got the impression that those newspapers that aren't running the stories exactly as we would like are taking careful note of those that are."

The Senator carefully resisted the urge to swear as he began to see the cracks starting to appear in his Empire of fire, "this has got to be stopped,"

"It may take some rather drastic action,"

"Yes," Kinsley mused, and then grinned, the look reminded Maybourne far too much of a shark gazing upon its prey, "I think its time for our illustrious Commander in Chief to have an accident, don't you?"

Maybourne frowned, his heart quickening in shock, "we do have contingency plans in place for that necessity but it isn't going to be pretty,"

Kinsley shook his head, not really caring, "a mess would probably make the situation more believable to the General Populace, especially if I need to declare a state of emergence whilst we chase down those elements of the military that have gone rogue, killing the President as the prelude to a coup attempt."

Maybourne nodded, feeling nervous sweat forming on his brow, "right, that will give us the excuse needed to remove those who might resist, forcibly gain control of the SGC if necessary but whilst we control segments of both houses, in order to make it stick…"

Kinsley nodded, "A certain degree of opposition would certainly be needed to maintain public appearances, but I think a few more deaths at the hands of the 'traitors' then just the President might just increase the realism and the fear…"

Maybourne nodded, the shook his head as the timer on his watch bleeped, "we'll need to meet to discuss details properly at a much more secure location later, for now, that's my cue to go. I'll start the ball rolling in the meantime, names, a certain level of infrastructure…"

Nodding, Kinsley dismissed the NID agent, turning to leave through the 'abandoned' shops front door even as Maybourne casually fled through the surprisingly well oiled and maintained loading bay door.

Shivering as he walked away, Maybourne decided right there and then that he had to get the latest tape to Walsh as soon as possible… and that he could not afford to take even the slightest short cut in doing so, not now. He knew that if he wasn't under surveillance by those cells only Kinsley knew about now, he would be soon enough.


	29. Chapter 29

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaoseternus**

Twenty-Nine 

"He wouldn't dare," Ryan commented flatly, his face tellingly expressionless.

"I think he would," Clarke commented softly, "which leaves us with an opportunity."

Ryan glanced up sharply, his expression dark as he took in the expression on the face of his long term friend, "opportunity?"

Clarke nodded, "we know Kinsey's bent, we also know who a lot of his lackeys are, but I don't think we have any real idea of exactly how big the rot really is."

"You cannot seriously be considering using the boss as bait," Andrea commented, her expression void of the blankly professional and emotionless look that would have been expected of her had they been in public.

"Oh, I can," Clarke grinned, "Kinsey is a credible threat, we could move now and we could decapitate the monster but the body would be largely intact and like a hydra a new head or two would appear. It's not enough to kill the head; you need to burn most of the body as well."

"I don't like it," Andrea snapped.

"No, I don't expect you to," Ryan grimaced, glancing around the confined space of the armoured limo, "but he does have a point. Unfortunately, the risks are perhaps too great, if we fail, America may end up a dictatorship."

"If we just take out the head, all we do is defer the problem for a few years, perhaps not even that, we need to exorcise the cancer," Ding noted quietly, "we'll do as we must as always, but it'll be you who will be at most risk,"

"You know," Ryan said quietly, leaning backwards in his seat, his expression pensive, "if this gets out, and it always does, then one way or another, I don't think the American people are ever going to forgive us."

"Perhaps not," Clarke shrugged, "but Rainbow stands with you Mister President."

* * *

"Okay," Buffy said, her voice slurred, making Xander wince slightly as he caught sight of her bloody and broken lip, and beautiful shiner, "one troll hammer,"

"Did the negotiations get… aggressive?" Giles asked, his voice worried, but his eyes hiding a glint of amusement.

Buffy snorted, "No, I just made the mistake of suggesting to Dawn her 'crush' would never share her feelings."

Giles snorted, "quite, still that gives us two weapons that _may _ harm Glory, but at most they will force her too retreat. I don't honestly know how we are going to kill her."

"Coming up empty?"

"Very, I'm afraid."

"Well," Buffy shrugged, dropping the hammer on a book trolley which promptly collapsed under the weight, "I have faith in you."

"Well, right now Faith is about all we have unfortunately."

"Really Giles, I would have thought she would have been a bit young for you."

Giles frowned; mentally playing back the last seconds of conversation then rolled his eyes, muttering about bloody teenagers under his breath as he pointedly turned back to his books.

* * *

"I'm afraid, killing gods is a little out of my jurisdiction," Bond commented softly, "but would she have been corporeal or not in her home dimension?"

"Not," Daniel winced, "probably. With the option of becoming corporeal."

"Then would the fact that she is corporeal here be an indicator of her weakened state?"

"No, the fact that she is not becoming incorporeal at will would indicate a weakened state, plus the fact that she isn't warping reality around her as she pleases."

Bond shrugged, "that we can tell."

Daniel winced, "Unfortunately true, still is the body her normal form or is it native?"

Bond blinked, "would that make a difference?"

"I don't know," he glanced up at Bond, the dusty tome in his lap almost forgotten, "but if it is somebody else's form that maybe, just maybe…"

"A weakness," Bond's smile turned predatory.

* * *

Maybourne shivered, his expression hiding all of his shock and despair as he contemplated the scale of the treason he was helping to commit. The number of stars he had seen the last few days, some NID loyal but most controlled, unwilling, bitter but knowing better then to betray.

Or did they?

Given the monumental scale of what they were doing, someone was almost certain to gain a conscience and turn themselves in, but would they be believed? Or more likely, would they find somebody who wasn't a part of the conspiracy before their 'Guardian Angels' dealt with them?

Perhaps, Perhaps not. It didn't really matter did it, his place was already decided and he had little doubt that one way of another, he would not see the end of the chaos. Either the loyalists would get him, not knowing that he was passing information to their superiors, or his fellows would find out, at which point his end would likely be long, drawn out and painful. The NID did after all have experts in that sort of thing; some he had even recruited himself.

Still, much as O'Neill would laugh at the very thought, he did not what was right and what was wrong. He had done many things he knew to be wrong before and after being recruited but this, this was no 'wrong' to be done and then mourned in the name of some empirical 'Greater Good', this would be an attack on the 'Greater Good' itself and that he could not allow.

No, he had done many things for his country, for his _planet, _had even betrayed her when necessary but he had never shoved a knife into her guts and he certainly hadn't laughed whilst doing so, as he knew Kinsey would.

That knife must not land, even if that meant he had to take it himself.

* * *

Tara was scared, she knew something had changed, something _important, _but she could not tell what. Yet… people all day had been deferring to her, treating her with respect, _noticing _ her, acting as if they cared, from the dullest jock to the brightest geek, from the lowest outcast to the most vapid beauty queen.

It was… disquieting, she found herself longing to drop once more into comfortable obscurity, away from all the prying eyes but from the sinking feeling in her heart, she knew that was not likely to happen.

But this… wasn't this an extreme version of what she had wanted for Dawn? This the strongest protection she could think of, to be someone to be noticed and warded?

Of course… the magics had backfired; they must have backfired onto her, protecting herself not Dawn as she had wanted. Tara forced back some tears at the painful irony of it, wondering what had made the magics so… perfectly backfire. To be protected when you were trying to protect another? Normally such magics would just fail and painfully so.

She knew what she had to do though, she had to speak to Giles and she had to do it soon.


	30. Chapter 30

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaoseternus**

**Thirty**

"Makes sense," Xander commented darkly.

"Yeah, in an all too snaky way," O'Neill responded with a frown.

"Would it be possible too separate the two, host and parasite?" Daniel asked softly.

"Doubtful," Giles grimaced, "I mean, not a lot is known about such possessions, there are only two documented cases that I am aware of where a parasite maintained control of the body all the time."

"Isn't that an assumption," Willow shrugged, "I mean, do we know Glory is in charge all the time?"

"Good Lord, she's right."

"If she has to relinquish control that that in itself is a vulnerability," Bond nodded, "but if this Glory of her servants have any intelligence at all then they would have taken some steps to prevent knowledge of the host getting out."

"What surveillance was on Glory as a potential Goa'uld never reported any host personality," Daniel noted.

"That's either evidence of a good cover up or of the host never achieving control." Xander shook his head, "not conclusive."

"Right," Daniel glanced up with a frown from the report he was reading, "but the team lost track of Glory almost every day for several hours…. And almost at the same time each day too, they never found out why."

Xander raised one eyebrow intrigued, "really? I suppose it could mean many other things as well but it could mean she was suppressed at those times…"

"So, what would the host look like?" Willow shrugged, "is there any way to find out?"

"Wait," O'Neill stated, hands raised, "wouldn't the host look like Glory, I mean…"

"Afraid not," Giles lifted his glasses from his face in one hand as he replied, "mystical possessions run the whole gamut from none to barely any change in mystical appearance to those like vampires who can appear normal but must show their true face to feed to well, complete body transformation. It's entirely possible though not likely that Glory's host isn't even female or not even human to start with."

"You mean… it really could be anyone?" Bond grimaced, "how do you detect such creatures?"

"It depends on how well shielded the host is," Xander sighed, "and given we're looking at a God here, even if it is an exiled one, I think we can safely assume well protected."

"How well?" O'Neill asked grimly.

"Well, as a start its possible to create wards to prevent alternate personalities being detected by magic… the more powerful the ward, the more powerful the spell needed to break through it and there are a few that are believed to be unbreakable. Then, if you want to be tricky, you have wards that will cause the more common detection spells to appear to work fine and return a false negative."

"Not to mention, the old Douglas Adams SEP field effect," Willow pointed out.

"Or worse," Giles grimaced, "the 'Oblivate'"

"Oblivate?" Bond asked, eyebrow raised.

"Memory modification." Willow responded flatly, "nasty stuff… like raping someone's mind."

"I don't know what's worse," O'Neill said softly, "wanting one moment for just an ordinary day at the SGC… then realizing the next that this damn near IS an ordinary day at the SGC…"

The response to that was several gallows chuckles, which O'Neill shrugged off as he continued, "so, what we need to do is take the paranoid schizophrenics approach to this problem is it?"

"Not quite," Giles shrugged, "frankly, we need to at least trust that none of us is the host until we can prove otherwise. Frankly, our past schedules alone seem to alibi us there but other then that… detection spells, wards against memory modification or sensory deception… and we need to consider the potential for our own spells to interfere with each other. This is not going to be easy and we're going to need every spell caster we can to have even the slightest hope of finding out if there if a host and if so, who the host is and whether they take control at any point."

"Or we could check the footage from the surveillance; see if we can find anyone who was only present when Glory wasn't…" Daniel pointed out, making Giles blink startled.

"Well, that may work but if there are any wards against discovery those would still apply, you would still need to be protected against those."

"Great," O'Neill snarked, "can't we just find someone who is completely immune to such mystical memory hocus pocus?"

"Most beings that are immune we do not want to obtain the attention of, and there are no certain ways to make a human immune. I mean, some of us would certainly have some resistance, Buffy certainly does, but resistance, well…" Giles shrugged, "resistances can be overwhelmed.

"What kind of range are Glory's protections likely to have?" Bond asked.

"Well, at her power level they may well effect the entire world…" Giles glanced up at O'Neill as a Cheshire grin spread across the Colonels face.

"Sounds like a plan to me, take the surveillance records to the Land of the Light or thereabouts, check through them, see if anything shows up…"

"And forget about it as soon as you come back through the Gate." Xander pointed out.

"Right," Daniel nodded, "but we would know… it would simply be a case of finding someway of spreading the word."

"I think we should attempt the conventional approach as well," Giles pointed out, "I mean, O'Neill's plan may just work but..."

"A two pronged attack is better," Xander nodded, "agreed, but we will need more magic users and at least one may have to go with SG-1."

"Tara? I mean, Willow will certainly be needed here."

"Perhaps," Xander shrugged, "she arrived before Glory at least so that would not appear to be a worry but gate security is General Hammonds domain, so his decision, not ours."

O'Neill nodded, not missing the fact that Xander had subtly reinforced Sunnydale as _his _balliwack, and tipped his head towards the door, indicating Daniel to go on ahead, "Get back to you on that soon as I've called home."

"Magic box for me, think I'll be hitting the books,"

Bond watched as the witch vanished, then pointed out quietly, "what if Glory can change hosts?"

"We may have to burn that bridge when we come to it," Giles shrugged and Bond nodded, closing the door behind him as he left the apartment.

Xander turned to Giles, an amused grin on his face, "G-man… You've been holding out on me. _Oblivate? _"

The elder scholar groaned as he realised the ragging he was now in for, "Lord, Kill me now… please?"


	31. Chapter 31

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaoseternus**

**Thirty-One**

It was Maybourne, had to be. Who else knew so much about his NID operations, about the current mission?

Other then himself, no-one.

It fit… yet it didn't.

Maybourne had had so many opportunities to burn him it was ridiculous. If the attacks had started after the decision to go ahead with his final goal then he might have thought it was conscience, a limit had finally been reached on what he would do for the greater glory of America.

That would be weakness, but an understandable one, he would still die of course, but with some honour intact.

But no, the attacks, the arrests, the disappearances, the raids, they had all started prior to that decision… in fact they had forced him into the final act ahead of schedule, he had all the pawns he needed for the job true but not all the pawns he _wanted._

Maybourne… why now? Why not before, what had made him change? Had he ever truly been loyal, had he been a sleeper?

He did not know.

And yet… and yet he could not find the slightest proof it was Maybourne. Sure, if Maybourne was bent it would take just the one person but the same effect could be obtained if just ten others were bent. He had already calculated which ones, they were less valuable then Maybourne, they would die soon enough just in case.

If the leaks continued after that, he would know.

In the meantime, he had an emissary to meet from offworld, just another visit the SGC would never find out about if he had any choice in the matter. Still, he was curious to know what exactly this 'Morden' wanted.

* * *

_"We have an unknown going into Senator Kinsey's house, never seen him before but we're running a check now… wait, he's waving at us…" _

"That was the last broadcast made by the surveillance team before they went off the air," Abby noted, "hear anything odd?"

"Yea," Dinozzo frowned, "a slight skittering in the background… sounds almost like insect walking over the mike."

"Except the mike was on our deceased Seals face at the time,"

"Right Gibbs," Abby grinned, "there were four other mikes in the room recording, far more then I need to do a triangulation…"

"And?"

"And if this was an insect it had at least four legs, stood about half the size of a person,"

"Well, there is no 'insect' that large recorded in the natural world, so we doubled checked and triple checked that and guess what."

"Mcgee!"

"Right sorry boss," turning, the agent tapped at the computer, pulling up images onto the large plasma screen monitor, "the marks in the blood scattered across the floor are insectile, most likely some form of spider."

"Judging by the size of the marks and the height of the 'spider' this was almost a linear enlargement of a normal spider," Abby noted, her eyes wide.

"Wait, I thought you couldn't scale up that way." Dinozzo frowned.

"You can't," shrugging, Abby continued, "not for a natural creature but if what we are getting here is true, I don't think we're talking about a natural creature here."

"No," the voice from the doorway made them turn, "you're not."

Gibbs sent an acknowledging nod towards Agent Fornell and raised a quizzical eyebrow at Director Shepard, inclining his head slightly towards the Air Force officer at her side.

"Major Davis is here to brief you on a classified situation, one which we will be discussing in MTEC."

Gibbs shrugged, throwing his empty coffee cup into the bin, before looking the Major straight into the eye, "does that include why the Navy was spying on a US Senator?"

"Yes."

"Apparently not just the Navy then," Dinozzo commented, earning himself a 'you think?' look from Gibbs.

"I have clearances for Gibbs, Dinozzo, Dr Mallard, Sciuto, Mcgee and the Director. I also have a warning, if Ziva David finds out anything, directly or indirectly, about the briefing from any of you, then we have a prison facility that needs no keys at all."

"Great," Mcgee commented, disgruntled.

* * *

"We can use this." Xander nodded, then grimaced, "sorry Tara, I know I could have phrased it better then that." 

"No," she stuttered, "its okay."

He frowned, "you had no way of knowing it was going to turn out that way Tara, thing is you tried and if what you have said is true, you would have succeeded if you weren't deliberately blocked. That was the actions of another that stopped the spell succeeding."

"But why me?"

"If you mean, why did Gaia place the magics on yourself then the only answer you really need for that is that Gaia found you worthy of her assistance in the first place," Giles shrugged, sending Tara a warm, welcoming look, "most who call for her help are either ignored or start to suffer very bad luck indeed. For her to accept you, you would have to be a person worth knowing indeed."

"But…" _I am not a person at all… _

Xander frowned, his expression wary, he hadn't been listening so why had he caught… ahh. Somebody truly had caught her eye, if he didn't know better; he would say a Priestess had just been chosen or perhaps an avatar, either way…

"I do not know who told you that you weren't a person Tara," Xander held her gaze, "but I do know this. Your heart is what matters, the choices you make, the roads you travel, and all those make you a good person."

Tara blushed, ducking her head slightly, before continuing, "What did you mean, when you said you could use me?"

Xander blushed, his expression matching Tara's as she realized what she had said, "word choice Tara… but still, if you are protected enough, perhaps you can remember Glory's form where others would forget."

O'Neill nodded, "pack your bags kid, you're in for one hell of a ride."


	32. Chapter 32

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaoseternus**

**Thirty-Two**

"He's suspicious," Maybourne grimaced, glancing around warily as he bit into the overly greasy Double meat medley, "I don't think he can prove it's me who has been feeding you guys info but if he thinks it's me, well, he has had people killed for far less in the past." 

"Do you need to be extracted?" Cosmo asked, his hands still around the cardboard drink cup in his hand, a few wisps of steam revealing it to be coffee and the sucked lemon expression on the Marshall's face revealing it to be strong and bitter. Or maybe that was just having to deal with Maybourne… 

"Tempting," Maybourne snorted, "he figured out that the leaks could have come from either me of ten other guys and half of them are dead now, the rest, well, I really don't think they are long for this world. For them moment, I am apparently too valuable but if he proves anything…" 

He grimaced, "the threat is still too big and I am still the only person close to Kinsey you have. As much as I would like to get the hell out of dodge and preserve my own hide, I can't afford to do that. If Kinsey succeeds…" 

"Well, we do have a little something you might be able to use," Gerard kept his face expressionless as he passed a file across, "or rather, someone. A Marine Colonel who has admitted to diverting servers and other high range computer equipment for the NID's use. This Colonel has… certain predilections which allowed the NID to control him and well, he thinks he is going to get immunity from prosecution in exchange for turning." 

The NID agent turned mole, "instead he gets to reinforce my cover the hard way. Computer guy… yeah, I think I may be able to use that. Certainly if the computers were compromised from that start that would help to explain a lot of the leaks." 

"Don't you have people to check for those sorts of things?" Cosmo pointed out. 

"Yes and no," Maybourne shrugged, "random checks on the equipment, not every single piece. Could increase the number of people in the IT departments but that would increase the risk of a breech, that's one of the reasons I might be able to swing it." 

Maybourne placed the file back down on the table, "one thing the file doesn't say is what exactly his control was and why it is you have no problems giving this guy up despite the deal you obviously have with him." 

"Kids and a chance to keep a more important agent in place," Gerard shrugged slightly. Cosmo however glanced around uneasily, torn between delight that a piece of scum was about to get what was coming to him the _hard _way and discomfort at the harsh coldness of their actions, breaking a deal and throwing somebody to the wolves for the sake of expediency. 

"Kids?" Maybourne asked casually, his eyes locking on Gerard's, who nodded slightly. 

"Well, it's entirely possible that this Colonel is going to have an accident sometime soon…" 

Gerard's mouth twitched upwards slightly, "oh I'm sure whoever gets to investigate that will really make a good effort…" 

Cosmo snorted, "There are a few bent FBI agents in the Seattle office, NID controlled…" 

Maybourne smirked, standing up to leave, the file remaining on the table where Gerard picked it up and slid it out of sight once more. 

"Yeah, I think I know which ones you mean. You arrange for them to get the investigation, I'll make sure it slips that he was killed by the agency and I'm sure they will be all too willing to do the cover up for us," he glanced at his watch, "time's up, Good day gentlemen." 

"Don't tell, me, let me guess…" McGee commented quietly, his face pale as he glanced at Dinozzo, "Twilight zone?"

"Actually couldn't think of anything," Dinozzo admitted, his face riveted on the picture of a Goa'uld _Ha'tak _on the display in front of him, "minds gone blank." 

McGee snorted, "Red letter day there boss." 

Gibbs just grimaced, automatically raising his cup of coffee to his mouth, then giving a disgusted frown as he threw the empty cup into the bin. 

"Just what in the hell's name did the Air Force think they were playing at with this?" he gestured at the board, resisting the urge to get right into Major Davis's face. 

"At first, investigating an unknown and probably alien artefact and then," he shrugged, "trying to keep Earth safe the best way we knew how. The problem with Pandora's Box is you don't know what's inside until you open it and hindsight is always twenty-twenty." 

"Great," Gibbs frowned, "we working with the FBI on this one?" 

Fornell shrugged, "and the US Marshall's office, certain sections of the NID, Stargate Command, a bunch of…" 

He frowned, glancing across at the Major, "you know, I never quite figured out exactly how we were going to explain the Sunnydale crew to anybody." 

Davis grinned wryly, "the same way you explain SG-1… lots of alcohol or paracetamols, antacids…" 

"Sunnydale crew?" McGee asked. 

"If you're lucky," Fornell shrugged, "you'll never have to know. Let's just say we are apparently in contact with an active resistance cell forming in the area and leave it at that."

"Resistance cell?" Gibbs asked, dismayed and angry, "in _America? _" 

"Yes," Davis shrugged, "sort of. But really, they've been acting as a catalyst for the whole mess. We've known for quite a while that the NID was operating outside of official sanction and we've pruned a few branches over the years but since last Halloween, everything accelerated." 

"And now, we have a corrupt, murderous, treasonous bastard of a US Senator to catch in the act." 

Gibbs glanced at Dr Mallard, eyebrow raised at the rare profanity, but nodded, "yeah, that we do." 

* * *

"I hope you know what you're doing Colonel," Hammond asked sighing; his expression wary as he took in the assembling SG team plus one rather awed and scared civilian. 

"If you do," Daniel commented as he tightened the strap on his helmet, "you are the only one." 

Carter shot him a disquietened, agreeing half smile at that as she checked her P-90. 

O'Neill nodded, glancing at Tara who was being carefully checked over by Teal'c to make sure she was ready to go through the gate, "We're neck deep in horse shit and getting deeper then we have ever been before. This situation is outside the normal bounds even for us and frankly, I'm not sure exactly what we're supposed to do about it. So I'm doing the only thing I really know how to right now… trusting those my instincts and the evidence of my eyes tells me to trust and hoping they can figure out how to dig us out." 

The Colonel shot Daniel and Carter a tight smile, "just like I've always done with you two and the…" 

He waved his hand in the air, signalling something beyond him, "brainiac stuff." 

Daniel blinked, caught of guard by the speech, but nodded, "okay," and turned to the gate just as the wormhole activated, the sight making Tara stumble backwards in surprise. 

Hammond nodded, "very well, Sg-1 and Miss Maclay, you have a go. Good luck." 


	33. Chapter 33

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaoseternus**

**Thirty-Three**

"I need the key!" Glory ranted furiously, "If those blasted monks show up and retrieve it first they will be able to hide it from me again and…" 

Glory paused, her expression turning thoughtfully malevolent, "that's right. The monks know more about the key and they have got to be steamed about it vanishing from their vaults. They have to be seeking it… why aren't they here already?" 

"You're Gloriousness, the Monks are having difficulty entering the country, they have been refused 'legal' entry and the few that have managed to get in illegally have been taken by the Knights." 

"Well, that won't do," Glory giggled, "arrange for a group of Monks to arrive unscathed. We will just let them do the work for us and if that fails, well, we can always suck a few answers out of their heads… their monkish unloved heads with spinning goldfish bowls atop…." 

The scabs exchanged carefully sidewise looked and waited for the inevitable command, "little fairies dancing in my head again…" Glory groaned, slumping down onto the expensive and old loafer, "minions, a meal! Something bitter twisted… with a side portion of power." 

* * *

"Do we know what this key is that Glory is seeking? Or what it looks like?" Willow asked quietly, "maybe we are going about this the wrong way after all." 

"Bait," Buffy mused, "Take and hold the artefact and let the enemy come to you." 

"A classic plan," Bond shrugged; his hands still around the mug of tea in his hands, "but two issues. One we don't know where the key if or what it looks like though I have a suspicion Tara knows _something. _Two, right now Glory is capable of blowing straight through any defence we could possibly muster, kill us all and take the key anyway." 

"Kudos to her for trying to protect Dawnie though," Xander frowned, "but why did the spell backfire like that?" 

"Any why go to so much effort for someone you barely know?" Buffy frowned, "I'm definitely nor complaining and all but…" 

Buffy stopped, her expression freezing, an icy shard of fear digging into her heart, "Xander, she said she had only tried such a spell on _Dawn." _

Giles glanced up from his book, his expression pensive, "where are you going with this?" 

"She's a Seer," Buffy sat down sharply, the icy shard digging deeper and deeper as she thought, "she arrived shortly before Glory did and James is right, she does know _something_about the key but Dawn is the only one she has tried to protect." 

Bond frowned, getting where she was going with this, but unwilling to just let it slide without a little Devil's Advocacy, "Dawn is the only one she has _admitted _to trying to protect, she is also the only one in our entire group that doesn't have something going for them. Even the normal troopers are effective against scabs and other demons if they know what they are doing." 

"The big one there being _knowing what they are doing," _Buffy snorted "but I don't really see Tara as the lying sort, avoiding, declining to answer but not lying." 

"Agreed," Xander frowned, "and the fact that the spell she tried failed in the first place despite the willing assistance of the… source she drew upon is in itself telling." 

"You're saying there is something we don't know about Dawn," Willow frowned, "I don't see how that could be, I mean we all know Dawnie and have done for years." 

"Have we?" Xander glanced at Willow, "or do we just remember knowing about her for years?" 

Bond frowned, "memory manipulation? On that kind of scale I find it hard to believe." 

"It would not be easy to hide either," Giles frowned, "I mean, there are records of such things having been done mystically before but eventually something always reveals the modification." 

Giles started, "Good Lord… this conversation would count as the modification being revealed." 

Bond sighed, "There is an assumption in there but when would such a thing have been done without it being noticed?" 

"Well, obviously nobody would allow a memory of the modification occurring to survive, that would reveal straight away that something had occurred." Buffy pointed out and Bond tipped his head at her, acknowledging the point. 

"Halloween," Xander nodded. 

"Of course," Giles sighed, his hands worrying at his glasses, "so much changed that night that slipping in one more thing…" 

"This is my sister we're talking about," Buffy commented, rising from her seat, suddenly aghast at what she was saying, what she was contemplating, "I mean…" 

"I know Buffy," Xander replied firmly, catching her in the eye, "and we may have just been talking out of our arses. On the other hand, we may not have been. We need first and foremost to find out and that means some major mojo to get past whatever spells would be protecting such a secret and they would have to be something very special to hide her essence form me." 

He shrugged at the glances he received, "I have sensed _something _off about Dawn but it was so like Buffy yet muted that I assumed it meant she was a potential." 

Buffy sat down again sharply, her expression fearful and shaken. 

Giles shook his head, "that does not tend to run in families." 

"Small comfort," Buffy grimaced, her expression sliding into defeated, "we need to investigate my sister. Do you have any idea how much of a heel that makes me feel?" 

Willow and Giles nodded, Xander just glanced at Buffy then turned towards the books. 


	34. Chapter 34

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Four**

"This is no longer humorous," Teal'c commented darkly.

Carter nodded, sighing, "We did sort of expect it though."

"Indeed,"

She shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure if I can accept this though. A power capable of getting an entire planet to not notice that there is a false God walking around."

"Many would not have reason to notice, of those who would, some would not want to know or believe. A few would know only very briefly,"

Carter nodded, agreeing and catching the unspoken implication that 'only very briefly' meant fatally, "and those who did notice, did believe… how would they get others to realise?"

"I believe most of your 'conspiracy nuts' post on the interweb." Teal'c turned a raised eyebrow on his team-mate, perhaps we should check there."

He got a frustrated nod in response, "it's already being checked but…"

"I believe the expression Giles used about research was 'separating the wheat from the chaff,"

"Indeed," Carter replied, making Teal'c quirk an eyebrow, "but with far more chaff."

They both turned there gaze back towards O'Neill who was shouting into his radio, trying to get the SGC to realise that Dawn Summers and Ben Shipman needed to be looked into.

"Nevertheless, it does inform us that we are on the right track," Teal'c noted.

He got a questioning look in response, "Sergeant Harriman understood every other name we passed across."

Carter started, a look of enlightenment passing across her face.

* * *

Coughing, Giles walked out of the living, face partially blackened by soot, "I'm afraid Lobsang's Spell of Hearing didn't work…"

Gibbs glanced up, somewhat bemused from his laptop, his expression quite correctly interpreted by the former Watcher.

"It's supposed to be able to make you hear any sound made by a specific being at a certain time. Lobsang made it several lives work to try to refine it so he could hear what the creator said at the moment of creation."

This was considered by the Omega Section agent for a moment, "did it work?"

"No-ones knows for certain, the last that was seen of him he was being sucked through a vortex to an apparently disc shaped world."

"Any other ideas then," Gibbs shoved the laptop away, stretching, "I'm all out. I _know _I've seen the answer but I can't grasp it."

"I know," Giles replied, "it really is quite frustrating."

There was silence for a moment, then Harry Tasker walked into the room, sliding his mobile phone into his pocket, "message from Colonel O'Neill, they've sent a bunch of names through to be investigated and all bar two came through okay. Two names couldn't be understood or remembered regardless how they transmitted them."

"Good Lord," Giles replied, his expression pensive, "if what we believe is correct, one of those names could well be Dawn's but the other…"

"The other would be our perp,"

"Quite," he nodded at Gibbs, "it's not likely that they would just happen to have stumbled across someone else with similar levels of protection after all."

Gibbs and Harry shared a look, "we need to know what they know,"

"We also need to be able to confirm it," Giles noted, "and I am almost out of ideas."

Harry grimaced, knowing that in this area at least, he was completely out of his depth, "I'm sure you will come up with something, in the meantime, I have some killing to do."

"Really," Gibbs jumped from his seat, moving swiftly to his partners side, "who?"

"Don't know yet," Harry replied, deceptively idly, "Faith's DNA test results came back a perfect match for Dana."

Gibbs stopped, his expression blanking, then he frowned, "no way man, I did security on the birth myself, there's just no way…"

Harry shot his friend a look and Gibbs shut-up, but after a few moments nodded, conceding the point, "no _normal _way…"

Giles frowned, "I'm not aware of any magical way you could create a clone that would last so long. There are short-term spells but generally they all have to be carried out either by the person being copied. One way or another, the person being copied normally knows about it on some level…"

"Can you check?"

He nodded in response, "it might be worth speaking to O'Neill as well."

He received a puzzled look in response but after a few moments Harry nodded, conceding the point. The Colonel and his team also dealt with the weird, so it wasn't out of the realms of possibility they had some ideas that could help.

"I suppose…" Giles paused, his expression thoughtful, then he turned swiftly, walking in the direction of the Library, "Courture's spell perhaps…"

Harry reached into his pocket, angrily grabbing his phone as he strode away and Gibbs was left alone with his laptop once more.

* * *

"He'll crack," Ziva said confidently, watching Gibbs and the NID agent through the two way glass.

"What makes you so confident?"

She glanced across at the Federal Marshall, "it's Gibbs,"

Cosmo considered this for a moment, and then shrugged, conceding the point. He had known a few agents like that after all, Gerard being just one of them.

"If he's been arrested as an enemy combatant, is he going to Cuba ?"

"No," Ziva replied, "he knows too much and there are too many at Gitmo who might want to use what he knows. I have it on good authority the SGC knows a few choice locations for really effective prisons."

"Really, get that from your father?"

"No," she replied tersely, "I did not. When your President… I mean, my President _and _Prime Minister both 'suggest' I co-operate but tell my Father nothing I take note. When I am advised informing my Father might result in an accident I certainly take note."

Silence fell in the room for a moment, but then Ziva sighed, "In some ways my father is like Gibbs though. I will say nothing, do nothing… and he will most likely know anyway."

Cosmo chuckled, "yeah, I know what that's like."

A flash filled the room for a moment and the prisoner vanished, and Ziva shared a tight, victorious smile with the Marshall 's as Gibbs made a show of storming out of the interrogation room.


	35. Chapter 35

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Five**

"This is one hell of a mess," West shook his head wearily.

General Brent chuckled in reply, sipping at his beer slowly, his eyes never ceasing in their movement as he scanned the Bronze, looking for vampires or other hostiles, "if you can't take a joke…"

"I know," the Staff Sergeant shook his head, "but damn it, Xander fucked up."

"True," Brent nodded, "but right now he's acting far too much like a lieutenant, concentrating far too much on tactics. Making sure he had beds and supplies for all the military types he was trying to recruit, that's logistics, the realm of Generals and Sergeants. He has yet to pass through the stage on concentrating on strategy."

"He's going to get people killed."

"Almost certainly," the General sighed, "but if he survives, then he'll learn and became the deadly and more useful because of it. We have the advantage of training and experience to make us more capable, he doesn't have his own experiences and training to draw upon just the half-remembered remnants of somebody else's."

"Well," West shook his head, a pained grimace on his face, "least his assistants have a better idea of what to do. That Oz guy is doing a damned good job of arranging billeting."

"Leaving you the more interesting task of arranging units," an evil glint lit up the corners of Brent's eyes, "how is that going?"

"One SAS Sergeant ordering a Marine Major to take command of 'mere' Rangers and Seals," he replied dryly, "how well do you think its going?"

Nodding acknowledgement, Brent shrugged, "if you get too many problems, give me a call and I will try and come down from the armoury to assist. These people may all be ex-military types but a Generals stars should still have some effect on them."

"True, but you're helping enough with the paperwork for those who," he paused for a moment to consider his words, then shrugged, apparently deciding on the blunt approach, "decided going AWOL was an appropriate response to the message they received."

Grimacing, the General shook his head, "idiots. Though at least a few of them did have some pretty good explanations as to why the message so definitely caught their attention."

"Maybe, but it doesn't excuse going AWOL,"

"No, it doesn't,"

West shook his head, "at least the CRD refit is going well. Right now we have Giles and Buffy going over and creating a new training program with that ex-spetznaz weapons instructor who showed up."

"Good person?"

"A bit bitter, definitely a drinker but certainly putting his mind to the job," the sergeant shrugged, "he'll do. He'll have to for the moment. The issue isn't getting the recruits trained as military because, apart from a refresher, most of them already got that down pat. The issue is retraining them to deal with the kinds of threats they'll have to deal with."

"Recognising vampires must be an interesting class," Brent noted and West groaned.

"You have no idea, it's easy enough if they're in full kit because a simple thermal imaging camera will tell you who's a cold target or a hot sierra but if you have to figure it out without one and the vamp isn't playing ball or is on the prowl…"

"Nasty,"

"Exactly," West sighed, "we've already lost at least two who made the wrong choice on a Bronze patrol and that civvie who got staked last night, well that shouldn't have happened at all."

"Civvies?" he asked sharply.

"Yes," came the regretful reply, "didn't make it either."

"Fuck,"

"Pretty much my response as well," West noted, "but frankly, with tangos who can disguise themselves as friendlies, not matter how much you try to get it right, sometimes it will still go wrong and not much you can do about Murphy sticking his nose in."

"Still…"

"Training and experience is as always the bulk of the answer," the Sergeant nodded thanks as two refills were dropped onto the corner of the bar in front of them, "equipment helps, but we are also going to need a dedicated research team on call."

"Oh?" Brent asked with a frown.

"There are at _least _one thousand different types of tango, at least three-quarters of which can only be killed through quite specific methods," West shook his head, "no way is one individual going to remember all of that so research team, and the knock-on effect that is having on the armoury… guns and ammo, fucking _swords _and not ceremonial ones either, blessed knives, supersoakers, holy water…"

Brent considered this for a moment, a bemused smile on his face, "almost sounds like a recipe for a bad joke, what kind of armoury has its own priest?"

"Not yet," came the reply, "but we're working on it."

This threw then General of for a moment, and then he groaned, "I don't know what's worse, the fact that you meant that or the fact that it actually makes a certain amount of sense."

"If you can't take a joke…"

"I know," Brent sighed, "but this madhouse, it just seems to get crazier and crazier."

"Yeah, right now Giles is working on getting the research team together, Willow is apparently working on computers and databases but is bitching about the amount of time its taking,"

"I would have thought it would be a simple task for her,"

West grimaced, "the computing side is, but apparently they've had a least one accident in the past which resulted in a demon being unloaded to the internet."

Brent blinked, his jaw dropping slightly.

"Apparently he was the last owner of the CRD facilities as well,"

"I don't want to know do I?"

"I know I wish I didn't sometimes," the Sergeant shrugged, "but not only are we looking for researchers and priests but medical personnel as well. At the moment we have a single corpsmen covering what is almost a full if very mixed platoon."

Brent found himself blinking again at this, "a platoon? That many?"

West nodded in reply, "And likely to get bigger. It's been what, just two months now since that blasted email dropped into my inbox and people are still trickling in."

"Can Xander afford to support that many people?"

West shrugged, "not really my area of expertise, but I know he's had a few lump sums come from a few places and now patent fees are starting to trickle in. I don't have access to that kind of info and frankly, don't usually have the time to ask."

The General nodded acknowledgement, "I suppose, still, that kind of strength would be enough to start making the Joint Chiefs nervous, if it continues to rise…"

"It will," he paused as he took a long pull from his beer, grimacing at what the sergeant considered to be an inferior domestic brand, "and not just with humans. Okay, I know the magic users they're recruiting are for the most part human, but non-humans have started to show up as well…"

"Non-humans?"

"Yes, a few could pass but most…" he laughed, "they've actually put a non-human in charge of the crèche."

"You're kidding,"

"Nope," West shook his head in denial, "but Clem seems okay enough."

"Huh," Brent narrowed his eyes as he considered this, "interesting…"

"How so?"

"An anti-demon organisation that's willing to trust demons."

"I wouldn't call them anti-demon," frowning, the sergeant gestured swiftly at one of his troops scattered across the room, gesturing towards an apparently amorous couple trying to leave the club, "more like…"

He paused, "well, anti-world endage, anti-evil… I don't know. They certainly seem to accept there's a different between demon and evil but I get the distinct impression they don't have a lot of patience there. The big three, Xander, Willow and Buffy, they all act sometimes as if there's is a major part of them that sees an alien or demon and straight away presses the kill button and that they are having to put in a major effort to restrain that."

Brent nodded, "in some ways, that's a good sign, in others, not so much."

"True," a commotion caught the Sergeants eyes and he looked towards a door, quickly catching a gestured request for assistance. Grimacing, he dropped a bill on the bar to go towards his drinks, "but its back to work I'm afraid. Same time Tuesday?"

"Of course, go get 'em soldier," Brent replied, his eyes heavy as he watched his friend swiftly make his way through the crowds and out of the bar.

He had a report of his own to make.


	36. Chapter 36

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Six**

"It still doesn't make any sense," Harry grimaced, " Willow has checked her out so we know Faith isn't a magical construct but I can't see how else this could be…"

"I know," Helen replied, "It's this town, it just has to be. I mean, finding out you were a spy, that was weird enough, but this…"

"I don't think we can blame this on Sunnydale," Faisal noted, his expression grim as he nervously flicked his eyes between the Taskers, just waiting for one or the other of them to explode in anger. Or maybe both…

"I mean, we know Dana and Faith met months before Halloween and…" he shrugged, "Halloween was when everything started to change."

"True," Helen sighed, "but it doesn't make it any easier."

"It does and it doesn't,"

"Harry, you can't seriously be considering…"

"I don't know how she came to be or why she came to be," he shrugged, "but blood doesn't lie. Genetics doesn't lie."

"Well, how else do you explain this?" Helen grimaced, nervously shaking her head, "I mean I didn't carry both of them. You know that, the Doctors know that and even if I was and nobody had noticed, I would certainly have noticed the birth and nobody would have been able to sneak out past Gibbs with a baby!"

"I know," Harry shrugged, "but she is our daughter. Blood doesn't lie."

"It has too, I mean how else can she be physically and genetically the same to a point. How else can she have the exact same memories as Dana up to a specific date?"

Harry didn't have an answer for that.

"It's almost as if she's a copy," Faisal noted and then shrunk back in his seat at the look the confused and distraught Helen sent him.

"Did you speak to the Colonel?"

Harry sighed, not needing to ask which Colonel his wife was referring too, "Yes."

"And?"

"He suspects something," Harry shrugged, "he gave me his word he would call back when he knew what was going on, but he definitely had his suspicions."

"Did he explain what those were?" Faisal asked after a few moments of Helen glaring at Harry.

"No," Harry admitted, "but he's solid. If he says he'll get back he will."

Helen leaned back in her seat, mollified.

"Still, you can not seriously…"

"I can," Harry interrupted making Helens eyes widen in surprise, it wasn't often he interrupted her and certainly not with such a reproving note in his voice, "it doesn't matter how she came to be. She is genetically identical to Dana, she has all the memories of Dana up to her thirteenth birthday… in many ways she is Dana, just with a far harsher last few years of life."

"She could be lying," Helen noted, "I mean, about the memories."

"Xander and Willow say she isn't and they both have their own ways of knowing," he shrugged, "I believe she is telling the truth as well."

"Harry…" she sighed, knowing she was close to losing this argument and a large part of her was wondering why she was arguing anyway.

"Helen," he replied gently, "we have another daughter."

A flutter filled her heart for a moment at those words, and then she burst out laughing, "Well Harry, you never did figure out how to do things the conventional way did you, so I suppose this is just par for the course."

"You're blaming this on me?" Harry shot back, relief colouring his voice, "how is this my responsibility?"

"Well," she grinned, "if you're insisting she s your daughter, I would presume you had some part in her coming to be…"

Harry choked back a laugh a Faisal quietly fled the room, knowing the following 'argument' could go on for hours.

* * *

Limping, Willow pushed open the main doors of the CRD complex, her left hand pressing hard against her right shoulder, a whimper escaping for just a moment as the pressure of the door sent a shaft of pain shooting through her body.

Sweat and blood marring her face, she tried to walk down the corridor, knowing there was no-one meant to be in this part of the complex yet except the work crews who would have gone home before sundown but also knowing this was the nearest and quickest way in.

Besides, there was likely to be a patrol in the area somewhere and if she was lucky, they would find her.

Of course, she hadn't been lucky so far tonight.

She tripped over a discarded tool, a scream being torn from her mouth as she hit the ground. The right arm of her armour fell out of position, revealing torn connectors and cables as it slid out from underneath the massive shoulder piece.

The armour, originally painted in just four colours, the white, black gold and reds of the Adeptus Sororitas had been repainted into urban camouflage of mottled greys. Now, that was stained bright red around her arm and head, a slow trickle of blood dripping onto the floor where Willow lay panting in pain.

She reached up with her good hand for her helmet, and then dropped it, knowing the bent and shattered shape wasn't going to be coming off anytime soon and that, is she didn't get assistance soon, it might not matter.

She wished she had her gun still, nobody would miss the sound of that firing this close to the complex and it would definitely get a response. Her bolter would be better, that sound was unmistakably different from any other weapon in the arsenal and its firing would provoke an even stronger response.

Of course, it was in the armour awaiting either a special occasion or a fresh load of ammo, whichever came first.

As for her backup weapon, the las-pistol… well, that didn't work so well whilst bent into a pretzel.

She groaned, and turned over, trying to force herself to her feet but her right arm swung unnaturally, banging into a workman's desk and she dropped to her knees, sobbing, the sound coming distorted through her helm.

She edged away from the desk then tried rising once more, managing to get to her feet. She walked all of ten paces forward before slipping with a scream to the floor once more.

This time she didn't get up.

* * *

"All Units, reports any sightings of Miss Rosenberg immediately." Xander shot to his feet, his head whipping around to the radio on his desk, the bed clothes polling around his feet as he cursed, his expression going icy as he reached for the device which had so precipitously woken him from some much needed sleep.

"This is Harris, sit-rep please,"

"Copy, Miss Rosenburg left for patrol in full armour at nineteen hundred hours and has missed the last two check-ins. She is not responding to radio and we have reports of major battle indicators at her last known location."

"Wake the world control," Xander replied, the icy glint in his eyes settling down into something far worse, "if it has legs and can carry a gun I want it in uniform and ready to go."

"Copy."


	37. Chapter 37

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Seven**

The sound of hammering woke General Brent from his sleep and with a grimace; he rose swiftly to his feet as he aide rushed into the room, flicking the lights on as he came.

"Sir, we may have a situation in progress," he stated, his voice edgy as he practically threw the Generals uniform at him.

With a grimace, he caught the clothes, swiftly beginning to dress, "what kind of situation?"

"NSA reports an abrupt increase in transmission numbers and strengths inside the town. Satellites confirm all the lights have come on at the same time, we're seeing heat sources in every building and personnel billeted off-base have been arriving and they have not been obeying the speed limits. Analysis suggests it's a full scale alert of some sort."

Brent paused a mere moment to send the aide a 'you think?' look and then, with a scowl he reached down , swiftly opening his desk, pulling a headpiece from within which he swiftly clipped over his ear and tapped on.

"Fuck," he sighed after a few moments, "inform the NSA that Xander may be asking for sat time shortly, they need to try tracing all movements of armoured elements within Sunnydale tonight."

"Missing man?"

"Worse," the General pulled a pistol from under his pillow, giving a quick visual inspection before sliding it into his holster, "his number 3 in MIA."

Willy glanced puzzled at the door of the Alibi Room, his hand wiping a greasy cloth around the inside of a glass in a futile attempt to dry it, his ears catching a loud clomping noise that appeared to be approaching the doors. A shadow appeared in the window for a moment then the doors _shattered, _sending shrapnel flying around the room.

He found his heart beating faster and with a grimace he glanced down as glass rained around his feet, his fist having clenched inside the glass as the doors disappeared making the glass shatter.

He glanced back upwards and swallowed.

The armour might have been apart of a few of his naughtier fantasies, the individual certainly was and he had found himself wondering on more then a few occasions, usually after a beating, what it would be like to be 'disciplined' by the Slayer.

The expression on her face wasn't anything remotely like those that appeared in his fantasies however. Those always promised a good sort of pain, her current expression however just revealed her to be a living embodiment of fury.

She stalked towards him, her armoured boots making the floor creak under the weight, " Willow has gone missing and there are signs she had been in a massive fight. What do you know?"

The words with bitten off, loaded with threats and painful promises and despite his fear, Willy found himself becoming aroused. Nevertheless, he still found himself agreeing with the muttered and heartfelt 'oh shit' he heard coming from a polgaran in the corner.

Hell of it was, for once he didn't know anything.

This, he mused, could be painful.

* * *

"I think the shit just hit the fan,"

"You think," Peck replied sarcastically, glancing from the complex a moment towards Hannibal , "you know, I don't think now is a good time to go over and say hi."

"And never will be a good time," B.A. scowled, "they're working with the army. We reveal ourselves to them and we may find ourselves handed over to Decker or his replacement."

"Not likely," Hannibal frowned, "besides, our contract is Kendra. Kendra works with them and they are definitely protective sorts. They won't allow us to just return her to her parents without verifying our bona-fides."

"I still say we should have talked to the armoured babe we saw earlier,"

"No," he shook his head at Faceman, "there are advantages to getting one of them on their own of course but not when they can casually just reach out and snap you in two."

"Got a point," Faceman replied, "but still, I'm not entirely happy with this whole mess."

"We took a contract, we made a deal," Hannibal sent a look at Faceman that stated quite clearly that his mind was made up, "and we have never been the first to sour a deal and I don't think we should start."

"Ruin our reputation," Murdoch pointed out, waving the cactus in hands at Peck.

"Our reputation?" Faceman snorted, "Our reps good where it needs to be, just starting to be overwhelmed by the awkward questions."

"Quite," Hannibal replied a little edgily, glancing around warily as a tingling feeling settled between his shoulders.

"Something wrong?" B.A. asked, rising to his feet.

"Just…" Hannibal grimaced, "maybe I'm just getting old, but the old soldiers friend really seems to be kicking in right now."

"Then we need to bug out," Murdoch replied, "before they come and take Mr Cactus away."

"Right," Faceman replied as he began to pack the equipment away, assisted by B.A., "I know better then to ignore that itch…"

The window shattered and small round object appeared on the floor, swiftly pushing out gas.

"…between your shoulder blades. You couldn't have had it a little sooner could you?"

Hannibal grimaced, holding his top over his mouth and nose with one hand as he carefully edged the door open and glanced out, finding himself looking straight down the barrel of a M4-Carbine.

Giving the glaring figure behind it a weak smile he pushed the door all the way open, "apparently not."

* * *

She came to with a groan and a gasp of pain as she tried to raise herself to her knees once more. She felt more then heard a grinding a bone rubbed against bone in her right shoulder and whimpering, she shook her head.

Slowly, carefully, she rose to her feet, using the workman's desk for support. Then, keeping her left hand against the wall for support, she moved slowly and painfully deeper into the complex, leaving behind blood and the shattered left arm armour piece to mark where she had fallen.


	38. Chapter 38

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Eight**

"We've grabbed the guys watching Kendra and they have confirmed sighting Willow at 19:35, she appears to have been on profile at the time,"

"Understood," Xander replied, glancing across at the Intel officer, still wearing her US Air Force blues, albeit stripped of insignia beyond a simple name patch, "any signs they're involved in her disappearance?"

"No indications," she shrugged, "and I'm definitely inclined to believe them. They have also explained why they are in town and as soon as the situation with Willow is resolved, I strongly suggest you speak to them."

"Noted," he replied, "dismissed."

Nodding, and resisting the urge to salute the petite Asian officer walked away, and Giles stepped up swiftly into her place.

"A bit abrupt perhaps," he noted.

"Maybe," Xander shrugged in reply, "but its crisis time and this is when military training shows its best usually. She understands."

"Maybe, but maybe not," Giles frowned, "I understand you're worried, I'm worried too, but don't forget, these people who are here helping you and out there searching for Willow are breaking the law and they are doing so at your request.

They're carrying concealed without proper licenses because the paperwork hasn't been approved yet, they're carrying weapons which are not street legal, they're breaking traffic laws and they are intercepting police and military transmissions in the area."

Giles shook his head as he turned to walk away, "if the agreement with the government goes ahead fully, we may be able to do all that and more legally. At the moment however we're all risking prison sentences at your command and all of these people are volunteers. The least they deserve is a bit more respect and courtesy."

Xander frowned and after a few moments nodded his belated agreement, but Giles and the officer were gone.

* * *

"Definitely a major fight here,"

"Yes, but were the players?" Dinozzo asked, glancing around, camera raised.

"Well," McGee shrugged, his torch swiftly flicking around the site "that is why Gibbs volunteered us to divert down here, to find out."

"Not as if they could ask the local Leos," Dinozzo mused, glancing down then taking a careful step back. Leaning down, he took a shot with his camera before dumping a small yellow label on the floor, "shoe prints."

"Local Leos," McGee walked up carefully, "are a joke."

"Sheppard's working on it,"

"I know," McGee shook his head, eyes not leaving the prints, "but that'll take time and in the meantime…"

"Yeah," he stood back upright, "two sets. One small, almost abnormally so and the other a partial."

"Yes," McGee shot Dinozzo a look, "but a big partial and definitely military."

"Lot of weight too," he mused and then shook his head, "there's not enough of it to be sure."

Nodding reluctant agreement, McGee took a long careful look around the cemetery then paused, his eyes resting on one of the destroyed headstones.

"Cloth," he noted, walking across the grass.

Trotting up besides him, Dinozzo took a look then nodded, "recent break on the headstone too."

"Agreed," McGee replied, taking a step backwards for a moment as his partner snapped the cloth and the break, before reaching carefully forward, pulling the cloth off the ground with a set of tweezers.

"Manky and brown," he held it up to his nose, sniffing, his expression turning to disgust, "not somebody who washes to often either."

"Vagrant bystander or demon?"

"Not exactly our area of expertise," Dinozzo noted, "hell, battlefield analysis isn't exactly our specialty either."

"But we do crime scenes," McGee noted, his eyes following the suddenly upraised arm of his fellow agent, "interesting."

"I'll say," came the reply as Dinozzo walked swiftly across the ground towards what had once been a set of metal rails and was now twisted and bent like some abstract piece of modern art, "you don't think…"

McGee sighed, "It does look almost as if someone was thrown into the railings yes,"

"Takes a lot of force to twist metal like that," he kneeled down suddenly, reaching carefully forward. Then he withdrew his hand, grabbing the torch on his head and pointing it directly at a glimmering on the metal.

"Blood,"

"Yes, but whose?"

"Footprints," McGee noted, aiming his own torch at the ground, "one big and heavy set again."

" Willow most likely," Dinozzo noted, "looks as if she was moving under her own steam."

McGee's torch tacked between the railings and the footprints, "I think the bars must have been wrapped around her armour."

Aiming his torch at the railings, Dinozzo carefully counted then winced, "at least three of them may still be."

"Ouch," came the reply, the torch dropping to the prints once more "and toes are definitely dragging too."

"If it was Willow ," sighing, Dinozzo rose to his feet, "then she is definitely injured,"

Nodding, his partner reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone, tapping swiftly at the screen. After a few moments, he nodded grimly before sliding it back into his pocket.

"She was trying to head back to base,"

"Why didn't she radio?"

"Must have been damaged,"

Dinozzo nodded, conceding the point, "Probably, still don't know who won though."

"Or who she was fighting," McGee agreed, "Still, as you're senior field agent I believe it's your responsibility to update Mr Harris."

"What?" his eyes widened, "no way. As senior agent I designate the job to you probie."

"You just don't want to speak to the guy,"

"Yeah," Dinozzo replied, "that guy is almost as bad as Gibbs when one of us is down."

"Which is actually a recommendation," McGee noted, his torch swinging across the grounds once more.

"True, but you're not getting out of a simple call that easily probie."

He frowned, "hey Dinozzo."

"Yes?"

"If her radios damaged, that doesn't mean she wasn't able to get a transmission out at all,"

"Radio intercepts?" he asked.

"Possibly," McGee shrugged, "we know NSA have set-up a listening point to monitor Harris and his crew somewhere in the area but last time we were here Buffy was talking about having her armour modified to include a cellular phone."

Dinozzo smiled, clapping his friend on the shoulder, "make the call McGee."

* * *

Her perception of time was going, it had to be.

It felt like she had been in the building for hours yet she knew she had gone only twenty of so meters from the entrance.

Her vision was tinted, her eyes felt like they had been attacked with sandpaper and the incessant flickering of the light of her battered helmet switched between normal, enhanced, heat and night vision modes was making an already excruciating headache even worse.

But at least she was in the right building, she had to be.

Yet…

If that was the case, why hadn't a patrol come across her yet?

Surely she was making enough noise with all the tools she was knocking over, the dragging of her armoured feet on the floor, the times she had fallen over to get somebody's attention.

But nobody had appeared.

Still, she knew the building, she had the design memorised. It was only another 100 meters or so till she left the area under refit and got into parts of the building that were still in use.

She should be noticed quickly enough then.

Surely…


	39. Chapter 39

**Emperor Xander****  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Thirty-Nine**

"Got a call from the feds,"

The Asian was back and this time Xander sent her a welcoming though tired smile.

"The signal from the cellular handset that was tied into the helmets auxiliary data ports cut out at 20:03 and then was intermittent for a further twenty minutes. It appears Miss Rosenberg started heading back this way but…"

Xander grimaced, knowing in his heart he would not like what he was about to hear, "but?"

"But she veered off after about eight minutes. It's possible she has become disorientated."

"Fuck,"

"The signal has now been lost," she sighed, "I've been in contact with General Hammond who has been relaying info between us and the NSA. Apparently the carrier wave from Willows radio cut out at 20:03 as well."

"That enough time for her to get to Restfield Cemetery on her scheduled patrol," he mused, "and that is where the scuffle appears to have occurred."

"Agreed,"

"Anything from the satellite?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Not that has been passed onto us."

Xander shook his head, "find me a magic user."

"Sir?"

" Willow is our only magic user at the moment and she is the one who is missing, I need another for a tracking spell," he grimaced, "I can feel she is hurt, and can feel she is in great pain but I can not feel where she is. So, find me someone who can do a tracking spell."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

There was someone in front of her wasn't there?

She squinted, trying to see clearly but all she could manage was a vague shape in front of her. It could be anything.

She groaned, sobbing, leaning against the wall as she tried to clear her eyes. It was a futile effort, however much she scrunched them up the blood refused to clear from her eyes and her helmet was in the way of clearing them any other way.

And it hurt.

Her whole body hurt, a thousand pains, a thousand stabbing reminders of how she had been defeated and beaten and contemptuously left behind as not being a threat.

In some ways the dismissal, the contempt hurt worse then the beating, but still, she was beginning to truly wonder if she would survive to redress the balance.

She hoped she did, the absolute last thing she wanted to do was to force Xander to have to mourn her. He was her yellow crayon after all.

She tried to take another step, but her legs tangled and he barely managed to avoid falling to the floor once more. The pain of the unexpected movement wrenched a cry of pain and furious despair from her lips and frustrated, she hit out at the wall, expecting to find the solid brick and mortar of her base.

But finding plasterboard.

Plasterboard which gave way under her, dropping her armoured form to the ground, she tried to raise her good arm to cushion the landing but wasn't quick enough and her helmet hit concrete with a clang. The impact forced her head backwards and shoved the torn metal and plastics into her head hard and fast.

Her vision went abruptly darker, redder and she knew she was bleeding once more but she couldn't feel where the bleeding was coming from and for some reason, she knew that should really worry her.

But it strangely didn't.

It was almost as if she was beyond worry, that she had moved past such complex emotions, and yet, she knew she shouldn't be. Her mind was addled, it had to be.

Why else would she be trying to restrain the urge to laugh?

The laugh buddle out of her throat anyway, then seconds later, sharp pain hit her once more, this time from her chest and the laughter died straight away. Pain in her chest at laughter… she realized the worry hadn't left her at all; it was now back with a vengeance.

It couldn't be a good sign.

She tried to rise to her feet again and then with a shattered gasp, feel to the ground, unmoving once more.

* * *

"Sir,"

Glancing upwards, Xander found himself gazing into the compassionate but slightly distant eyes of the Intel officer once more.

"We have a possibility at the UC Sunnydale Campus," she stated, her voice level, "in amongst a group currently auditing classes for next year."

"How likely?"

"Very, her mother was definitely a witch. Family background is a little troubling though,"

"Problem?"

"Shouldn't be," she shook her head, "if she is honourable, it might be worth offering her a position to take her away from her family."

"I see," Xander replied with a pained sigh, and he did. All too clearly and personally, "if you have to make that offer to her to get her to help…"

"Understood," she paused, catching his eyes once more, "going to deal with this one personally."

"Thank you," he smiled, turning his face down to the map once more as she left and making himself a mental note to find out her name once this was all over.

* * *

"There's an incident underway in Sunnydale,"

"I'm aware," Maybourne noted, not needing to ask who was on the other end of the line. Only one person was supposed to have this number after all.

"It involves one set of their armour," there was a pause, "that armour can be of far more use to the American people if it wasn't in the hands of vigilantes, if our scientists were given the opportunity to try replicating it."

"I understand," he replied, his yes catching the wordlessly swearing figure of the Marshall in front of him, "I'll mobilize what I can but we're already behind."

"Then I suggest you catch up," the phone dropped.

"Damn," Maybourne grimaced, "that can't end well."

"Xander isn't aware of just how dirty Kinsey is," Walsh noted, leaning forwards into the light, "and for the moment he can't find out either."

"No," he nodded agreement, "he may just decide to be direct about it and that would end any hope for government cooperation with his organisation and probably our access to those advanced technologies he has rattling around inside his skull as well."

"You don't think he would stay on mission?"

"For the moment with one of his own missing?" grimacing, the NID agent leaned backwards in his seat, "I would say yes. But once that situation is resolved, I don't know, the psyche profiles on this guy are so full of qualifiers and arse covering…"

"Still," she mused, "I may have to find a way to quietly slip the word to Mr Harris that he needs to get to his friend first. You had best get to work, if Kinsey is monitoring you as you suspect, then too great a delay between his order and your reaction might be fatal."

"Why Marshall , I didn't know you cared," Maybourne replied, nodding reluctant agreement as he rose to his feet.

"I do," she smiled, revealing the lie in her words, "just not about you."

"Always the mission…" he noted as he walked swiftly out of the office.


	40. Chapter 40

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Forty**

Xander was unamused.

You could almost say he was displeased, but if you were going to be honest, you would say it was duck and cover time because the boss had just blown his stack, the dark simmering in his eyes could be likened to the simmering of volcanic lava as it reached the sea.

But there was wariness in his eyes too.

"That's the kind of outfit the scabs wear," he noted, tossing the filthy brown robe back the feds, "Glory's servants."

"Great," Dinozzo smiled somewhat warily, "least you know who to arrest… beat up now over this."

"Or not," McGee noted, "If she can toss Miss Rosenberg around hard enough to wrap steel bars around her armour…"

"Then she needs to be dealt with quite carefully," Xander replied, his expression grim, "problem is, we still do not know exactly how to kill Glory and make no mistake, this is a kill mission."

"No way of containing her?" McGee asked quietly.

"None known," he sighed, "and no confirmed method of killing her either; hell, I'm not even sure how we would give her lasting injury!"

"Your heaviest ammo?"

"Melta bombs," Xander shrugged, "don't have a lot of 'em and they didn't work first time around."

"Great," Dinozzo frowned; his eyes revealing how troubled he was by the fact that he was involved in a pure kill mission, but in there was also acceptance. He might not like the idea, but he understood the necessity.

"Sounds like you might have to try a nuke," McGee noted joking.

"I'm afraid it is quite possible that would not work,"

Startled, the two feds turned to stare at Giles, "really?"

"Hiroshima…" Giles shrugged, "there was a nest of Vra-zeil demons underneath the main blast site. Their nest was utterly destroyed, but they survived until a Japanese kill team arrived to stop them feasting on the survivors. They were killed by being stabbed with bamboo."

Dinozzo blinked, "wait… they survived a nuclear blast only to be killed by bamboo?"

"Indeed," he sighed, "this is the problem of dealing with demons and the like. Most are actually quite easy to kill _if _ you know how."

"And we don't," Xander noted flatly, "and that is what is making Glory such a threat."

"We also have another problem,"

Giles tone made Xander glance up at the older man sharply and warily. With a pained grimace, he gestured the two, now very curious NCIS agents out of the room.

"Buffy performed Courture's spell successfully earlier,"

"And?" he asked sharply as Giles paused, his hands working agitatedly at his glasses.

"It appears that Dawn may have been created and our memories altered as we suspected," Giles frowned, leaning forwards against the desk, his expression heavy, "in all likelihood, she is the key Glory is seeking."

Nodding grimly, Xander glanced down at his desk, desperately ignoring the wetness glinting in the corner of his eyes.

"Do we know what would happen if the key were to be released from its bindings?"

A sharp intake of breath let Xander know Giles had figured his meaning straight away, "no, and I sincerely hope it does not come to that."

"Neither do I," grimacing, Xander shook his head, "but intentionally or not it may well happen. In fact it's likely to happen at some point unless Dawn was made immortal.

If needs must…"

"Buffy see her as a sister," Giles sighed, "we all do."

Xander smiled tightly, "Dawn patrol…"

"Quite,"

"Still we need to know," Xander sighed, "because as much as it might pain me to do so, if it comes down to a choice between Dawn and the world…"

"You proved that much with Angelus," Giles grimaced, "I do understand what you are saying, but I don't think it's the best of ideas."

He nodded, "Buffy is part of the team and Dawn is her sister. You don't shit on your own team unless you want to be without."

"That's not exactly what I meant,"

"I know," frowning, he gazed off into the distance, "when did it all become so hard?"

"When you chose to stand up to the darkness and became a man," sending a proud look at Xander, Giles turned and slowly walked out of the room, leaving Xander alone to his thoughts.

* * *

"Beacons and transmitters?"

"All dead,"

"And not enough satellite tracking," the Asian stated, shaking her head.

Brent shrugged, "the NSA are doing what they can but right now we only have access to a bird when it passes overhead which isn't that often. Getting more coverage is possible by diverting more birds but the more birds you divert the more likely it is to raise a flag somewhere."

"And it'll be months at least before a bird can be launched into geosynch,"

"Correct,"

"Okay General, I hope you have some ideas because I am all out,"

He shrugged, "Lieutenant…"

"Lu," she shrugged, "just call me Lu. It's not as if we have a proper rank structure on this end yet after all."

"Okay Miss Lu," Brent smiled, "I think the house to house will get us results but of course we have to be careful with that."

"Right," she grimaced, "if a team finds a hostile or worse, Glory…"

"I believe the teams have already found and cleared out several nests of hostiles tonight,"

Sighing, she placed her hands down onto the map table, "which of course slows the whole process down and risks more people being diverted from the search to the infirmary and meanwhile we have a man down out there somewhere,"

"We do have a general area,"

"One that is far too large to seal off or police properly."

"True," Brent noted, "but without something unique that could lead us straight to Willow, I'm afraid we'll just have to do this the hard way."

"And even if there was a unique signature, it could be blocked depending on where she is."

"True, though I think you mean signal." He replied, his expression dark as he gazed over the plans, hoping something would jump out at him.

Lu blinked, "what did you say?"

Distracted, Brent shrugged, "I think you're correct."

"No, after that…" she frowned, "signature…"

Brent raised his eyebrows questioningly, but remained silent, recognising the expression on the Intel officers face for what it was; that of a person who is mentally plucking at a loose thread to see where it leads.

"Signature… _power _ signature. The armours back packs!"

"This isn't Star Trek," Brent replied dryly, "we don't have some mythical subspace sensors that will allow us to easily pick off a single energy source in the middle of an entire town."

"No," Lu grinned, "because the bulk of satellite mounted sensors are line of sight, visual, infrared, radar and the like. But I would bet Colonel O'Neil would know where to find something better?"

"O'Neil?" Brent smiled, "do you really think an _alien _ hunter could come up with something better then the NSA?"

"I would imagine so, yes," she replied gravely.

* * *

She knew pain.

She knew pain and little else.

She knew she should move, she should do something but she didn't know who or what. The pain, the terrible heaviness that left her feeling like she was being dragged into the floor, all overrode any semblance of thought.

She wasn't even sure of whom she was anymore, she just knew pain, failure and that someone was going to find her.

Someone who liked yellow crayons… whatever a yellow crayon was.

Or maybe she was the one who liked crayons?

She didn't know.

Did it matter?

For some reason she felt it did and that she should be terribly sad at having forgotten why it was so important but the only thing that seemed to matter right now was the pain.

If only she could sleep…

But something, some screaming voice in the back of her head just kept insisting that the last thing she should do was sleep.

That it might be the last thing she did.

The shouting made her head ache even more, but for some reason she felt this might actually be a good thing. After all, she had been a good girl and as such she shouldn't have to worry about pain in the hereafter so she was still alive.

She was still alive wasn't she?

…

She hoped so, but she couldn't really tell anymore, not over the pain.

They would come for her; she knew it in her soul.

She wasn't sure who 'they' were, but they would come.


	41. Chapter 41

**Emperor Xander  
by Chaos_eternus**

**Forty-One**

"Are you sure you know what you are asking?"

Xander nodded sharply, "we have a missing man and are asking you to find her using witchcraft. Plain and simple."

"Not so plain and simple, there is always a…"

"Price of some sort," he shrugged, "this is the hellmouth, it is unlikely to be a nice price. We'll deal with it when it happens. Right now I need you to find Willow."

She sighed, gazing wearily over the supplies and oddments scattered around the magic shop, "I'm not sure…"

"Oh?" Xander asked sharply.

"I…" she shrugged, "it's not my speciality. If she were dead, I could find her no problem. If she's alive it won't even register for me."

He frowned, then his eyes widened and it was Xanders turn to be wary, "necromancy?"

She nodded, "its why my family rejected me. Magic in the family is normal but the unnatural arts?"

His eyes softened for a moment, recognising in the witch a part of himself. The mark of one who as been rejected by their blood but in the case of the witch had not yet found a new family.

Then his eyes hardened again, "try anyway. Just in case."

She glanced around, her eyes taking in the four hard faced soldiers at the exits. She didn't say it, but Xander got the message. It was the one he had been trying to send in the first place.

You don't have a choice.

* * *

"The signal is being interfered with," Carter noted, frowning, her hands dancing over the _Tel'tac's _ controls, "I'm trying to isolate but…"

"Oh?"

Sighing, Sam glanced across at the Colonel, "there is an unusual energy field blanketing the entire area, I've not even been able to pick up the fully active suits of Buffy and Xander and I know where both of those are."

O'Neill grimaced, "no go?"

She shrugged, "I'll keep trying, but between the energy field and the mild sensor absorbency of the armour… if the suit is powered down I may not pick it up at all."

"Great," he grimaced, "I'll let Hammond know."

* * *

She was floating now.

She knew she should feel pain, knew that that fact that she didn't feel pain should matter to her, that it was somehow important and dangerous that she didn't feel pain.

Yet, she couldn't rouse herself enough to hold onto why it was important.

She knew this was the end somehow, and yet… in a deep part of her, a part of her that was still trying to get her to wake up, to move, to fight, knew there was one last thing she could try.

She could try to shout.

But not with her voice.

That sounded as if it should make no sense whatsoever, but nothing really made sense so that was okay.

Something that she had, something that Halloween had submerged temporarily, something waiting to be reborn anew.

Something dangerous, but powerful.

Something that she could somehow use to shout and then it would be made alright and all would be explained to her somehow, the cotton wool would be taken from her mind.

She gave into the persistent, annoying voice that called itself Thorn and screamed.

* * *

Xander bolted to his feet, gasping, hands grasping at his head as both pain and a strange disorientating lack of pain and clarity filled his mind for just a moment.

It brought with it a scream in a voice he knew all to well.

A voice he never wanted to hear make quite that sound ever again.

Shaking his head for a moment to clear the grogginess, he single-handedly pushed the desk out of his way; the wood cracking under the pressure exerted by the armour and dived from the room, pausing only to grab his helm and combi-bolter.

His Willow was hurt, and those who did the hurting would pay. But she had to be safe first… and that also meant dealing with those who meant her harm.

Those who forgot that signal intercepts could be done by both sides. As he moved, he began to make his orders over the radio.

He didn't notice the loud clamping his armoured feet made as he ran across concrete and tarmac. Didn't notice the large divots he made as he dived across grass and gardens.

He wouldn't have cared much if he had. His mind was only on the life of his friend and how to ensure she remained alive.

Nor did he notice the abrupt closing of doors, of curtains, the few adults who were outside suddenly finding reasons to be indoors; the children that gaped for a moment before heading inside themselves.

The priest that blessed him as he passed, then deliberately left the door to his church open as he went inside, the veteran that saluted and then stayed on his porch. The police officer who grimacing, gave a simple codeword over the radio, calling more ambulances onto stand-by and alerting Sunnydale General that tonight may be busy.

When he found her however, Xanders heart stopped for just a moment and were there was worry, now there was cold fear.

* * *

"Fuck me,"

"Problem?" Xander asked, his expression dark as the medic ran into the room and came to an abrupt stop.

"Yeah," he shook his head, dropping to his knees as his hands began to dance across Willows battered form, "real problems. Sunnydale General isn't up to this."

"We can't go elsewhere with the armour," Xander replied sharply, "No-one at General is going to talk, in LA they might."

"Yea," came the hurried reply, "but even with the kickbacks we've been giving them they still don't have a major trauma centre. This is going to require the varsity."

Xander grimaced, "I'll call Hammond and Brent. See if we can get into a military hospital, more likely to keep their mouths trap shut and less likely to be clogged with other major cases."

"Right," came the hurried reply, "just do it _quickly _."

* * *

_"Eagle one is on the move, I say again, Eagle one just pegged it out the building." _

_"Copy, ditto for Eagle Two. Man, are they moving!" _

"If they get their first, Maybourne will have our heads."

"Judging by the radio calls, they just figured out where the subject is. If that's true, we don't have to search. Just take them out and retrieve."

"Three sets of armour to study, not just one,"

"Right,"

"Heh, may even be worth a payrise."

_"Eagle One has requested immediate medical support on Twelfth Street, warehouse nine. Medic one please respond." _

"You know, that medic will have to go right past us."

The NID soldiery waited in their vans, sweating slightly with the anticipation of action, eyes strained for the whispered words of their spotter over the radio. Then; mere moments later, the word came that the target was moving into the engagement area.

A pause, then tires squealing, the two vans rocketed out of the side roads, one in front, one behind the target. In an efficient move that spoke of serious practise, the NID troops unloaded from the vans, guns tracking the white, unmarked panel van that had screeched to a stop between them.

A van from which grenades suddenly rolled, appearing from the underside of the van. Flash bangs, momentarily startling and disorientating the soldiers, followed swiftly by gunfire, not from the van but from the surrounding roofs.

Two minutes later, that fight was over, the survivors gazing upwards with a pained grimace as a helicopter, an old single-engined Huey raced overhead, a clear red cross visible on the side, heading not into town, but outbound towards LA.

They'd been had.


End file.
